Niamey, Niger – CCCPA Director of Research, Dr. Yasmine Farouk, represented the Center at the “Regional Colloquium on Radicalization and Violent Extremism in the Sahel”, held in Niamey from 08-10 December 2016. The colloquium was convened by H.E. Pierre Buyoya, the African Union Special Envoy to the Sahel and Mali, and former President of the Republic of Burundi. Participants included high profile representatives of regional and foreign governments, along with governmental and civil society organizations, including religious actors. Niger Foreign Minister, M. Ibrahim Yacoub, delivered the opening speech.

Sessions of the colloquium covered themes ranging from the definition of radicalization and extremism; the interaction between religion and radicalization; strategies of terrorist organizations in the Sahel region; the funding and digital resources of terrorist organizations; positive experiences in the prevention and countering of radicalization and extremism in the Sahel. Presentations covered cases from Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger and Chad. Organizations and foreign governments presenting their programs in the region included the European Union, the government of Denmark, the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel, the G5 Sahel and the African Union.

CCCPA’s participation focused on the presentation of the Center’s training course on Preventing Radicalization and Extremism Leading to Terrorism (PRELT).  Dr. Farouk presented the Center’s approach, which focuses on six pillars of change: from reaction to prevention, from investing new resources to better allocation of existing ones, from macro-level strategies to micro-level interventions, from partnership to empowerment and from criminalization to humanization.

Participants emphasized the importance of coordinating regional and international efforts not only in the Sahel region, but also across the African continent. Many interventions focused on the need for a growing role of religious institutions, civil society and women to combat radicalization and extremism.

The meeting was the second in a serious of consultations that started in Bamako, Mali, in October 2016 and will continue in Nouakchott, Mauritania in early 2017.

Photo Credit: AU PSD