November 18, 2018 (KHARTOUM) The Foreign Ministers of Sudan, Chad, Niger and Libya have agreed to hold an extraordinary meeting of the joint border security committee among the four countries at the end of the month, said El-Dirdeiry Ahmed, Sudan’s top diplomat

The four Foreign Ministers met on the sidelines of the 11th Extraordinary Summit in Addis Ababa.

According to Ahmed, the ministerial committee would hold its 5th regular meeting next month in Niamey, capital of Niger.

He pointed out that the Foreign Ministers’ meeting stressed importance to move ahead with the coordination and cooperation among the four countries to protect border security.

In a meeting held last April in Niamey, Sudan, Chad, Libya and Niger agreed to “coordinate the actions” of their armed forces to fight against the “transnational crime” in the region.

The four countries agreed “on the establishment of a cooperation mechanism for border security and the fight against transnational organized crime”.

Last June, they signed an agreement in Ndjamena to control and monitor the joint borders.

The political instability in Libya after the collapse of Muammar Kadaffi’s regime impacted negatively the whole region and particularly, Niger, Chad and Sudan.

Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and Boko Haram pose a serious threat to Niger and Chad while Sudan seeks to prevent trafficking of arms to Darfur and migration of mercenaries to Libya.

Sudan is not part of the multi-national military force in Africa’s Sahel region dubbed “G5 Sahel force” which includes Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

The UN-backed force is tasked with policing the Sahel region in collaboration with 4,000 French troops deployed there since intervening in 2013 to fight an insurgency in northern Mali.

(ST)