H.E. Mr. Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates
H.E. Mr. Vladimir Voronkov, Under-Secretary-General of UNOCT.
Excellencies,
Colleagues
Ladies and gentlemen,
First of all I would like to thank to Morocco and UNOCT for the organization of this event to inform MSs on the activity of the Rabat Centre . I have been impressed by the projects carried out and the ones ongoing.
Since the creation of the hub, Italy has strongly supported its activities, also financially, stressing the important role of UNOCT in Western Africa.
In Italy’s perspective, the development and delivery of specialized counter-terrorism and law enforcement training programmes is extremely important. This approach is in line with the 7th review of Global Counter Terrorism Strategy that underscores the importance of “targeted programmes and the training of relevant criminal justice and law enforcement officials, upon request, to develop their capacity to effectively respond to, prevent, investigate and prosecute terrorist acts”; the negotiations of the 8th review are still ongoing but the operational paragraph above mentioned has received unanimous consensus.
In the framework of the initiatives devoted to the fight of terrorism, let me also remember that Morocco and Italy co-chair with Niger and the United States the “Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh Africa Focus Group”. The Group is uniquely positioned to enhance the fight against Daesh by engaging with interested Coalition members (38), coordinating with other regional and multilateral entities on existing initiatives and the Coalition working groups on countering Daesh terrorism financing, furthering stabilization efforts in liberated areas, deterring foreign terrorist fighter flows, and countering Daesh violent extremist messaging to vulnerable populations.
Finally, I wish to mention two important projects set up by Italian law Enforcement Agencies with UNOCT in West Africa region:
In 2019, the Economic-Financial Police School of Guardia di Finanza signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UNOCT, aimed at promoting and developing joint training activities concerning topics related to the fight of money laundering and terrorist financing. Thanks to the memorandum, between 2019 and 2022 and only with regard to the African continent, these training activities were attended by more than 700 officials and judges, coming from 17 different African countries, including Morocco.
In May 2023 Italy Ministry of Interior organized with UNOCT a successful Regional Training course for law enforcement officers to enhance capacities of 10 Member States from West Africa and the Sahel region. The training was devoted to prevent cross-border movement of terrorists and stem the flow of Foreign Terrorist Fighters in the framework of the border security management activities of the center, including returnees, as well as related transnational crimes through improved border security and management good practices and strategies development.
Thank you
