By Sami Zaptia.
Lugano, 4 April 2018:
An agreement was reached between Libya and its three bordering neighbours, Sudan, Niger and Chad, to establish a cooperation mechanism to secure the common borders and combat transnational organized crime.
The agreement was reached by participants of the four countries during a two-days of consultative meetings held yesterday and today, hosted by Niger in its capital Niamey. Libya’s delegation included Presidency Council’s Interior Minister, the head of Intelligence and was headed by Foreign Minister Mohamed Siala.
In a statement issued at the end of the meeting today, the four countries confirmed a plan to engage their armed forces to fight transnational organized crime in the Sahel-Saharan region. The four countries said that the region of south Libya has become a hotbed of serious threats and a base for terrorist organizations, smugglers, armed groups carrying out mercenary operations aggravating the Libyan crisis.
The four countries also agreed to hold an expert-level meeting on 3 May 3 the Chadian capital N’Djamena to study a draft protocol on security cooperation among them.
