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Rabat – Morocco has deplored the apparent lack of robust regional and global efforts to effectively tackle the increasingly worsening situation in the Sahel, with the country warning that the region has in recent months become a “safe haven for terrorists.”
In a recent interview with the Spanish outlet EFE, Habboub Cherkaoui, the head of Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), reiterated the country’s call for the international community — including regional and global powers — to adopt a “shared responsibility” approach to deal with deepening insecurity in the Sahel.
One of the terror organizations creating security concerns in the Sahel is ISIS, which Cherkaoui sees as “intensely active” in the region.
For Cherkaoui, ISIS’ presence in the region poses a threat not only to Africa but also to Arab and European countries.
“The focus that bothers and worries Morocco the most, currently, is the Sahel area, which has become a safe and fertile refuge for terrorist networks,” warned the BCIJ chief.
He emphasized that the Sahel is not only home to terrorist organizations but also to a host of other organized crime networks active in human trafficking, irregular migration, as well as arms and drugs trafficking.
Morocco has repeatedly warned of connections between terrorist cells and other organized criminal networks operating in the increasingly unstable Sahel-Saharan corridor.
Drug trafficking and other organized crimes work to finance terrorist organizations, Cherkaoui recalled.
In addition to the alarming situation in the Sahel, Cherkaoui also spoke of ISIS threats on Morocco, saying that there are many people in the country that sympathize with or have pledged allegiance to the terrorist group.
ISIS loyals and sympathizers “ always have the desire to go to the hotspots of conflict, particularly now in the Sahel area,” he said.
In recent years, faced with the threats of ISIS returnees, Morocco has upped its counter-terrorism architecture with an “anticipation strategy” that has led to the arrest of several ISIS-linked suspects planning to launch terrorist attacks on Moroccan soil or relocate to conflict zones like the Sahel.
Cherkaoui said that intelligence collected by Moroccan security has established a connection between ISIS elements arrested in Morocco and terrorist groups active in the Sahel.
“Most of the firearms seized with the [ISIS-affiliated] detainees [arrested in Morocco] come from the sub-Saharan region,” he noted.
Algeria’s refusal to cooperate and Polisario threats
In the interview, Cherkaoui renewed Morocco’s concerns regarding Algerian reluctance to collaborate with Morocco to fight against terrorism.
He said that Algerian authorities refuse to cooperate although their country shares direct borders with Mali and Niger, two of the hottest spots in the Sahel’s decade-long confrontation with armed militias and terrorist groups.
In August 2021, Algeria officially announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Morocco. Prior to the decision, Algeria’s regime had continued to display anti-Moroccan rhetoric, challenging the country’s territorial integrity and relentlessly hitting it with unproven accusations.
Algeria notably shelters, arms, finances, and supports the Polisario Front, the separatist group claiming independence over Morocco’s Western Sahara region.
According to Cherkaoui, Morocco is concerned about its proximity to the Polisario-run camps in Tindouf, a province in western Algeria.
He said there is data confirming that local imams in the Polisario-controlled territory on Algerian soil have recruited young people and sent them to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Commenting on returnees from conflict zones, the BCIJ chief noted that Morocco is considering a repatriation and prosecution program for ISIS-affiliated Moroccan fighters.
The repatriation will also cover the ISIS-affiliated suspects’ family members stranded in conflict areas, Cherkaoui explained, adding that 1,663 people from Morocco had traveled to conflict zones in Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. Of these, About 747 died while 251 were detained in Syrian and Iraqi prisons.
To strengthen its anti-terrorist approach, Morocco has in recent years adopted a strategy that seeks to help suspects convicted of terrorism charges integrate into society.
In 2017, Morocco’s General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration (DGAPR) launched a program called “Moussalaha” — reconciliation. It is conducted jointly with the Mohammedia League for Scholars (Rabita) and the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH).
The project aims to psychologically and intellectually rehabilitate prisoners convicted for their links to terrorism and prepare them for social reintegration. The process is carried out using a threefold approach: reconciliation with the self, with religious texts, and with society.
