Boko Haram makes world terrorists list

Anti-terrorism experts met yesterday under aegis of the Global Counterterrorism Forum to discuss ways of preventing the financing of armed militant groups, focussing on north Africa’s Sahel desert region.

Intrestingly, Boko Haram, which has claimed responsibility for series of bombings in Nigeria was one of the groups discussed by the experts.

Manuel Lopez Blanco, coordinator for European Union strategy on the Sahel, said Al-Qaeda’s north African branch, known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Boko Haram had a shared agenda and probably cooperated in training and operational tactics.

Experts from about 30 countries participated in the two-day forum, which was co-sponsored by Turkey and the United States. The closed meetings were chaired by Algeria and Canada. The Global Counterterrorism Forum is coordinated by Daniel Benjamin, an ambassador-at-large for the United States State Department. The forum held an initial meeting in Washington, where members of its justice group and special prosecutors convened two weeks ago.

Yesterday’s talks concentrated on the influence of (AQIM) one expert speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP. AQIM, with an estimated 400 members, exploits the weakness of Sahel states such as Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger and operates freely on those countries’ terrain, the expert said.

He called for a global strategy in tackling the problems that can foment extremism, such as poverty and lagging development. The Sahel is an eight-million-square-kilometre (3.1-million-square-mile) area on the edge of the Sahara desert shared by several countries.

Delegates at the forum in the Algiers suburbs also spoke about the financing of terrorism, the expert said. Algeria, like the United States and other countries, reiterated the danger of kidnapping for ransom. The issue resurfaced recently with the October 23 snatching of two Spaniards and an Italian in southwestern Algeria.

Much of the forum centred on Libya, whose new government sent a representative to the conference.

Experts were concerned about the fate of the nomadic Tuareg people, who supported Moamer Gadhafi’s regime then returned to the Sahel after his overthrow in recent months.