President Bola Tinubu unveiled the African Counter-Terrorism Summit at the office of the National Security Adviser in Abuja on Monday.
The event which is currently ongoing and organised by Nigeria, with support from the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, will be held from Monday to Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with the theme: ‘Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Institution Building to Address the Evolving Threat of Terrorism’.
The Presidency announced on Sunday that the two-day summit aims to enhance multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation and reshape the international community’s collective response to terrorism in Africa, while emphasizing the importance of African-led and African-owned solutions.
The summit will provide a platform to review the nature and severity of the threat of terrorism on the continent, with a view to agreeing on concrete strategic priorities and measures to address this scourge.
It will also foster deeper regional collaboration, enhancing the institutional capacity of member states and facilitating the exchange of best practices and knowledge to combat the multifaceted threat of terrorism in Africa.
Heads of state and government and high-level government officials across Africa, representatives of international organizations and multilateral institutions, members of the diplomatic corps, and members of civil society groups are presently at the summit.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, said that the federal government has resolved to resume the prosecution of Boko Haram suspects held in detention facilities in Kainji, Niger State during the two-day High-level African Counter-terrorism Summit on Monday in Abuja.
He said security operatives are actively gathering intelligence information on the activities of Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) sects fighters in order to confront the groups directly.
The NSA stressed that the counter-terrorism summit was a demonstration of Nigeria’s strong commitment to the United Nations Counter-terrorism agreement.
