 |
African Anti-Terrorism Summit Starts in Senegal
An African anti-terrorism summit kicked off in Senegal's capital Dakar on Wednesday aimed at adopting common actions within the continent to fight against global terrorism.
The one-day summit drew delegates from 30 African countries, including 10 heads of state, to discuss how to tackle international terrorism in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, according to reports reaching here from Dakar.
Among those heads of state present at the summit are the presidents of Cape Verde, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Cote d'Ivoire, Mauritania, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda. Vice-presidents and heads of government from a dozen other countries also joined the summit on behalf of their countries.
Observers from western countries, including the United States and France, also attended the meeting.
A draft of declaration against terrorism has been drawn up by the foreign, interior and defense ministers along with security and terrorism experts at a preliminary meeting on Tuesday.
Proposing an African treaty against terrorism on September 17, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade called for the summit to promote the pact, which his country's parliament ratified last week.
Wade stressed that Africans can help fight terrorism by keeping terrorists off their soil and cutting off their finances.
African countries have already strengthened their actions against terrorism since terrorist car-bombings of U.S. embassies in the capitals of Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, which killed over 220 people and wounded thousands of others.
In This Section
|