Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Nasser Bourita said on Tuesday that the challenges facing Africa today are “unprecedented and unanticipated,” stressing that their pace is accelerating and their complexity is growing exponentially.
The similarities between separatist and terrorist movements “is not a coincidence”, said Director General of Bilateral Relations and Regional Affairs at the Foreign Ministry Ambassador Fouad Yazough, on Bourita’s behalf, during the Asilah Forum’s first symposium on the “Separatist Movements and Regional Organizations in Africa.”
“Nearly half of the world’s terrorism victims were killed in Africa, especially that the terrorist organizations are expanding and increasingly imposing their control over geographic areas throughout the continent,” Bourita said, affirming that Africa is the most affected region by crises, conflicts and wars.
He added that the continent is also the most affected by the repercussions of climatic changes, and their resulting threats to food security and the demographic shifts as a result of forced displacement and migration.
He pointed out that the food crisis, for instance, has affected the lives of more than 300 million Africans.
Bourita referred to separatist tendencies, stating that it is “another indication of a difficult situation in Africa, which houses the largest number of separatist movements in the world.”
He considered the separatist groups a direct factor behind the outbreak of civil wars and racial and ethnic strife, as well as tearing apart the social and cultural fabric and undermining the countries’ foundations and stability.
Bourita recalled his statements during the first ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS that was held in Marrakech in May in which he stressed that the spread of separatist movements in Africa undermines stability and contributes to the further weakening of African countries, ultimately serving ISIS and other violent extremist and terrorist organizations.
Based on these statements, Bourita said the separatist ideology not only leads to the outbreak of civil wars but also fuels extremism and terrorism.
He pointed out that these terrorist and separatist movements share the goals of undermining the countries’ sovereignty and foundations and boasting the abundance of funding and the succession of operational tactics.
The FM stressed that they even share the same methods of mobilization and recruitment, namely exploiting the weakness in the social and cultural structure and manifestations of weakness and fragility, especially among the youths.
