The Islamist militants exploiting the abject poverty levels in West African countries to lure, recruit and subsequently indoctrinate the vulnerable youths into terror camps.
World over, terrorist organizations usually exploit the socio-economic miseries and political crisis to achieve their goals of luring youth with a promise of a better life once they join the terror camps.
The President of Ghana and Chairperson of the ECOWAS Authority, Nana Akufo-Addo, highlighted the increased Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram’s activities in the Chad Basin as a worrying trend. He noted the insurgents were exploiting the unacceptable levels of poverty in West Africa in the recruitment and indoctrination of the youths in the region.
He highlighted the escalating threats, citing of the growing numbers of breakaway terror groups, the spread of ethno-linguistic militant groups and expressed concern over the porous nature of the borders and the vulnerabilities of the ECOWAS member states and beyond.
Militants activities have been on the rise in the Sahel region with Islamist militants trying to out-do each other to gain appeal and subsequently attract more fighters with their individual factions.
Akufo-Addo recalled that the ECOWAS had on September 12, 2019, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, convened an extraordinary summit on the eradication of terrorism which budgeted $1bn for the financing of activities in the action plan and reiterated that a plan of action urgently need to be adopted to curb the growing militancy threat alongside fighting against COVID-19.
