On Thursday, as more nations declared they would withdraw their peacekeepers from Mali, coastal states in West Africa held meetings to increase cooperation against terrorist violence spreading from the Sahel.
Al Qaeda and militants affiliated with the Islamic State group are waging battle over the northern frontiers of Gulf of Guinea neighbours Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo, posing greater hazards to their national security.
Representatives of coastal governments, the European Union, and others convened in the capital of Ghana to discuss security and intelligence cooperation as part of the so-called Accra Initiative.
Albert Kan-Dapaah, Ghana's minister of national security, stated that cooperation was necessary since the threat posed by extremism "is more pervasive than previously assumed and crossing borders."
"The threat landscape has consistently changed," he said.
Nearly half of the 346 incidents that occurred in Africa in the first quarter of 2022 were in the west, he claimed.
The Accra Initiative, which was started in 2017, also involves Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast. Since then, Mali and Niger have also joined.
The 15-member West African group ECOWAS will also be represented at the summit in Accra, which will go into the next week.
According to the executive secretary of the Accra Initiative, leaders will address security recommendations during a conference with regional heads of state scheduled for November 22.
The jihadist insurgency in the Sahel started in northern Mali in 2012, moved to Burkina Faso and Niger in 2015, and is currently intermittent in states around the Gulf of Guinea.
Over two million people have been displaced, thousands have died, and three of the world's weakest economies have sustained terrible harm in the three Sahel countries.
Since roughly ten years ago, French and foreign peacekeeping teams have been present in Mali to act as a check on the growth of Islamist violence.
However, following two coup attempts in Mali, the military junta there has shifted its allegiance to Moscow, obtaining Russian weaponry and enabling what Western nations refer to as Russian mercenaries to operate.
This has damaged relationships with Western allies. Earlier this year, France's Barkhane anti-jihadist operation withdrew its troops.
Ivory Coast announced this week that it will withdraw its force from the UN peacekeeping organization MINUSMA by August 2023. Mali and Ivory Coast are now engaged in a separate dispute over jailed Ivorian soldiers.
Germany issued a warning that its soldiers will leave the force by the end of next year "at the latest" and Britain also stated that it would leave MINUSMA within six months.
As the UK, France, and other countries consider possibilities for "rebalancing our deployment," British Defense Minister James Heappey said on Monday that he will attend the Accra summit the following week.
"I will join colleagues from across Europe and West Africa in Accra to co-ordinate our renewed response to instability in the Sahel," he said.
Particularly, the threat from Burkina Faso over the northern borders of Benin and Togo has grown.
Benin is also in discussions with Rwanda about logistical support and military expertise. Benin has counted 20 invasions since 2021.
Since November 2021, Togo has seen at least five attacks, including two fatal ones. The administration in Lome has reported that more than 4,000 people have been displaced in northern Togo only this year.