African segment of G8 Summit: President Bouteflika: “Algeria committed to regional cooperation in the fight against terrorism”

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said the Sahel region would dangerously turn into a safe stronghold for terrorist groups and a good place for the mergence of new crisis related to terrorism, such as organized crime, arms and drugs smuggling and trafficking.

• Algerian president called on the G8 countries to provide support to the Sahel region in the areas of intelligence, processing and training, in order to combat terrorism.
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• “The Sahel region has become the main stronghold of terrorist groups, where real dangers and factors that may result in serious risks. Perhaps it would turn into a starting point for the expansion of terrorism to other regions of the continent and the world”, he says considering the fight against terrorism a big challenge for the G8 that should combat this phenomenon as soon as possible.
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• “We welcome all view of effective cooperation by our strong partners”, he adds, asserting Algeria’s commitment to combat terrorism and related crimes in the Sahel region and Sahara, after the conclusion of works of the first regional summit of the Sahel region for judicial cooperation, hosted by Mali Bamako, where Algeria was absent, raising many questions about the seriousness of the Algerian government in cooperation with the countries of the region in the fight against terrorism and exchanging wanted persons.
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• President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika left Algiers Thursday for Canada, on the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take part in the African segment of G8 Summit, held in Muskoka (Canada).
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• “Algeria is committed to the bilateral agreements concluded between the countries of the region, including those with Bamako, which breached earlier one of the most important agreements, which is the exchange of wanted persons, through freeing two of the GSPC or AQIM terrorists for the release of a French hostage”, president Bouteflika explains.
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• “The Sahel region countries have agreed to combat criminality effectively, using cohesive work and coordination. Measures of activating frameworks of bilateral coordination comes through giving new impetus to regional partnership, respecting bilateral commitments and adopting international concrete actions in combating terrorism”.
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• President Bouteflika considered granting ransoms for the GSPC or AQIM leaders a direct support of terrorism, praising the role by African Union that criminalized the payment of ransoms to release at the level of UN Security Council.
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• “We are pleased to support the UN Security Council in this position, which included in the resolution no 1904 issued in December 2009 measures about criminalizing this practice that it a direct source of financing terrorism”.