APS : Sunday, 15 July 2018
ALGIERS- Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdelkader Messahel broached Sunday, in Algiers, with Niger’s Minister of State, Minister of Interior, Public Security,
Decentralization and Customary and Religious Affairs Mohamed Bazoum the challenges facing the Sahel region.
“We have exchanged viewpoints on the challenges facing our region. We are in an area of major turbulences,” Messahel told the press following the audience that he granted to Niger’s official who is in Algeria as part the 6th Algeria-Niger Bilateral Border Committee.
“This area is confronted by major challenges: terrorism, organized crime and illegal migration,” said Messahel, underlining that all these issues were the subject of an exchange of views between the two sides.”
In the face of these challenges, Algeria and Niger “must coordinate their actions,” said the minister, pointing out that “this is being done properly.”
Messahel said that he broached with Bazoum the next African Union Summit which will take place in Niger in July 2019, adding that “this meeting will be a great moment for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).”
For his part, Bazoum said that the bilateral border committee “is a framework which is part of the mechanism implemented by Algeria-Niger High Joint Committee which focuses on very practical issues concerning the two countries’ border areas.”
