President Bola Tinubu has again called for the establishment of a regional standby force to combat terrorism, large-scale weapon smuggling and other existing threats.
The President gave the call at the opening ceremony of the African Counter-Terrorism Summit in Abuja on Monday.
He stated the force would serve as a rapid deployment tool to combat both existing threats and the ones that could emerge.
Tinubu asserted that terrorism must be banished because it threatens farmers from their farms, children from their schools, and businesswomen from their sources of livelihood, thereby putting society and government into confusion and disarray.
He added that the fight against terrorism required a collective approach and that the root causes must be addressed.
On his part, the Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism, United Nations Office on Counter-Terrorism, Vladimir Voronkov, said the success of the United Nations lies in the collaboration of African countries towards providing African-based solutions.
The two-day high-level summit is expected to among other things, produce solutions to the multifaceted security threats in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
The summit is being attended by President Bola Tinubu, the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, and the President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé. Representatives of the Presidents of Chad and Niger are also present, while over four hundred delegates from across the African countries are in attendance.
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