ALGIERS (AFP) – Anti-terrorism experts met at an international security conference Thursday to discuss the financing of armed militant groups and to focus on north Africa’s Sahel desert region, officials said.

Some 150 experts from about 30 countries were participating in the forum, which was being co-sponsored by Turkey and the United States. The closed meetings were being chaired by Algeria and Canada.

A European diplomatic official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the forum had been constructive and countries from the Sahel region were able to express themselves without the constraints sometimes seen in international conferences.

The Sahel is an eight-million-square-kilometre (3.1-million-square-mile) area on the edge of the Sahara desert.

Countries from the area raised concerns over controlling their large borders as they struggle against the influence of Al-Qaeda’s North African branch and the need for better information sharing between neighbouring nations.

Libya, following the killing of its former leader Moamer Kadhafi, has a representative at the conference, but that official remained tight-lipped over the fate of Libyan weapons and their acquisition by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the network’s north African wing.

The group, responsible for attacks and the kidnapping of westerners in the region, is viewed as being a mentor for Nigerian group Boko Haram, which claimed responsibility for a recent series of bombings in Nigeria.

The Global Counterterrorism Forum is coordinated by Daniel Benjamin, an ambassador-at-large for the US State Department.

The forum held an initial meeting in Washington, where members of its justice group and special prosecutors convened two weeks ago.

-Vanguard

Posted by admin on Nov 17 2011. Filed under Africa & World Politics, Boko Haram, Latest Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry