Sudan, EU agree to step up joint anti-terrorism efforts

By Mohammed Amin

KHARTOUM

Sudan and the European Union on Tuesday agreed to step up joint efforts to fight terrorism and money laundering in Yemen and the Horn of Africa region.

Addressing a joint forum, where a memorandum of understanding was signed to this effect, Jean Michel, the EU’s special envoy for Sudan, warned that the Horn of Africa in particular still faced the threat of terrorism.

“The defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [also known as Daesh] does not mean the risk is diminishing, especially in the Horn of Africa and in Yemen,” Michel said.

Tuesday’s agreement, he went on to point out, calls for stepped-up information sharing between the two countries and capacity-building training for Sudanese security and law-enforcement agencies.

Abdul-Gani Alnaim, undersecretary of Sudan’s Foreign Ministry, for his part, used the occasion to reiterate Khartoum’s commitment to combatting both terrorism and money laundering.

In 2013, Horn of Africa countries and the EU signed a Counter-Terrorism Action Plan that laid down a five-year program for eliminating the twin phenomena.