A “strong and fruitful” counter-terrorism cooperation

The cooperation between the Kingdom of Morocco and the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office is “ strong and fruitful“, assured the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans residing abroad, Nasser Bourita.

This Friday, June 24 in Rabat, Bourita, accompanied by the Under-Secretary-General in charge of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office, Vladimir Voronkov, presided over the ceremony commemorating the first anniversary of the opening in Rabat of the United Nations Program for counter-terrorism and training in Africa (ONUCT).

The cooperation between the two parties, said the minister, is not limited to the theoretical aspect, but also includes the practical aspect through the implementation of a number of procedures and joint projects which have shown their effectiveness. and delivered tangible results.

In this sense, he called for the promotion of this cooperation in the years to come.

The United Nations Office, which is one of the fruits of the partnership between the two parties, achieved, during its first year, many objectives and contributed to the training of African cadres in the field of the fight against terrorism, further underlined the minister.

He also indicated that he had agreed with the SG of the Office to strengthen the strategic dialogue between the Kingdom and the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office, which will be launched in the years to come.

Bourita also indicated that the high-level meeting of Heads of Counter-Terrorism and Security Agencies of North African and Sahelian countries, held on June 23 and 24 in Marrakech, is further proof of the partnership that unites the Kingdom of Morocco with the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office, in accordance with King Mohammed VI’s vision of making Morocco a link between African countries and its partners in regional countries and organizations and international.

In this sense, the government official affirmed that Morocco, in partnership with the United Nations, makes its expertise available to African experts, who will thus be able to benefit from its experience in the fight against terrorism.

As proof of this, he points to the 1st Ministerial Meeting of Atlantic African States, held on June 8 in Rabat, which constituted a space for tripartite cooperation between Morocco, the United Nations Office for the Fight against Terrorism and African States, in the field of the fight against terrorism.

It should be noted that in October 2020, Minister Bourita and Voronkov had signed a Headquarters Agreement for the establishment in Morocco of the Program Office for the Fight against Terrorism and Training in Africa of UNOCT (United Nations Office of Counter- Terrorism).

Inaugurated on June 24, 2021 in Rabat, the United Nations Counter-Terrorism and Training Program Office in Africa is the first of its kind on the African continent.

In detail, the Program Office works to develop and implement accredited programs aimed primarily at capacity building and skills development in the field of counterterrorism, particularly in terms of security, investigations and prosecutions, prison and border management, disengagement, rehabilitation and reintegration.

Similarly, it relies on pooling the expertise of Morocco and UNOCT in order to provide quality training for the benefit of African States, according to a collaborative and united approach reflecting a spirit of collective responsibility.