President Bola Tinubu departs Abuja today, Sunday, 12 October, for Rome, Italy, where he is slated to attend the Aqaba Process Heads of State and Government Level Meeting beginning on 14 October.
According to a State House press release, the summit has been convened with “special focus on the security crisis in West Africa.”
The meeting will draw together heads of state, senior intelligence and military officials from across Africa, and representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations. Its purpose is to examine the evolving security challenges confronting West Africa and foster enhanced cooperation between regional and international partners.
The Aqaba Process, first launched by King Abdullah II of Jordan in 2015, is co-chaired by Jordan and Italy. It is designed to tackle cross-border threats, including the expansion of terrorist networks, the growing nexus between crime and terror, and the overlap between land-based terrorism in the Sahel and maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, the press release states.
At the Rome meeting, participants are expected to exchange assessments of the present security landscape and work on coordinated strategies to counter terror threats on both land and sea. The agenda also includes efforts to coordinate responses to online radicalisation and to disrupt digital networks used for terrorist propaganda and recruitment.
In addition to his attendance at plenary sessions of the meeting, President Tinubu will hold bilateral talks with other leaders to explore collective measures to address rising security challenges in the subregion.
He will travel in the company of key members of his national security and diplomatic team, including Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu (Minister of State for Foreign Affairs), Mohammed Badaru Abubakar (Minister of Defence), National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed, and other senior government officials.
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