Morocco Commits to Sharing Counterterrorism Expertise with African Partners

Rabat – Morocco has renewed its commitment to sharing its counterterrorism expertise with other countries from across the African continent.

Ismail Chekkori, the director of global issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, renewed Morocco’s readiness to share expertise with African states during a plenary meeting of the Africa Focus Group under the Global Coalition against Daesh in Niamey, the capital of Niger.
“As a co-chair of the Africa Focus Group, Morocco remains committed to the stability and security of the African continent and will continue to support all initiatives and efforts aimed at eradicating the scourge of terrorism on African territory,” Chekkori said.

Morocco co-chairs the group along Niger and the US.

The Moroccan official also stressed the importance of the meeting, noting that it comes in the wake of the first meeting held in Marrakech, during which the group of partner countries identified a clear path to improve responses against ISIS and its affiliates on the continent.

“The group has become an essential component of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in Africa,” Chekkori said, emphasizing the need to strengthen such mechanisms amid security threats affecting the region.

Chekkori also highlighted Morocco’s regional leadership in the counterterrorism field, saying the North African country’s impressive record in the security sector makes it a credible and reliable promoter of peace and stability on the continent.

Several reports have over the past months and years confirmed Morocco’s leadership in countering terrorism and other related threats.
In its latest country reports on terrorism, published on February 27, the US State Department spotlighted Morocco’s vigilant security approach and hailed the US-Morocco counterterrorism cooperation.

Rabat and Washington have a long “history of strong” counterterrorism cooperation, the report said, stressing the “vigilant” security approach Morocco has adopted over the past two decades to tackle terror threats.
“The Government of Morocco continued its comprehensive strategy that includes vigilant security measures, regional and international cooperation, and counter radicalization policies,” noted the report.

Links between separatism and terrorism in Africa

In his comments at the Niamey meeting, Chekkori also recalled Morocco’s concerns about armed separatist groups and their threat to the stability and development of manyAfrican countries. Such separatist groups serve their sponsors’ agendas and “hidden interests,” he said, stressing: “Unfortunately, it is not new to the African continent.”

Morocco has long emphasized the importance of joint cooperation to tackle terror threats across Africa, particularly in the Sahel – a region that is often described by security observers as a “fertile” ground for terrorists.

During the ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition to defeat ISIS held in Marrakech in May of last year, Morocco’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita denounced the financing, arming, and support of separatist groups.

“The convergence of financial, tactical, and operational means, creates an objective alliance between terrorist and separatist groups,” the Moroccan FM said, stressing the increasing number of individuals crossing from separatist to terror groups and “vice-versa.”

One of the separatist groups causing security concerns is the Polisario Front, which is backed, financed, armed, and hosted by the Algerian regime in a deserted area called Tindouf camps in the westernmost Algeria.

While the Polisario Front militia seeks to undermine Morocco’s territorial integrity by claiming independence over the Western Sahara region, many observers and reports have linked the separatist militia to terrorist groups operating in the Sahel.

In January, former attorney general for the state of Arizona Mark Brnovich said: “For decades, Algeria, with the help of Iran, has provided military and material support to the Polisario Front, a terrorist organization in Western Sahara that Algeria uses to destabilize neighboring Morocco.”