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Egypt urges Africa to unite against terrorism

By Abosede Musari, Cairo
05 August 2015   |   3:01 am
THE government of Egypt has called on African nations to unite and fight terrorism as a common enemy, which is seeking to ravage the continent at the moment. President of the National Council for Human Rights in Egypt, Mohamed Fayek, gave the advice in Cairo yesterday while speaking with journalists from sub-Saharan Africa. He assured…

TerrorismTHE government of Egypt has called on African nations to unite and fight terrorism as a common enemy, which is seeking to ravage the continent at the moment. President of the National Council for Human Rights in Egypt, Mohamed Fayek, gave the advice in Cairo yesterday while speaking with journalists from sub-Saharan Africa.

He assured of Egypt’s cooperation in the move to fight terrorism on the continent. According to him, the aim of the wave of terrorism sweeping across Africa from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya to Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroun, Kenya, Somalia and the other countries where violence is being recorded, is to divide the countries affected, and the continent as a whole.

This aim, he said, Africa must fight by staying as one as in the days of founding fathers of Africa like Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Kwame Nkurumah of Ghana, Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria, Kenyatta of Kenya, among others. While telling the story of how he has worked with these African heroes, and how his country has contributed to sustain freedom struggles in most of the countries, the elderly man who was a former minister of information in Egypt, urged the younger generation to emulate African heroes who had in their time, united to fight oppression, colonialism and apartheid in Africa irrespective of their nationality. Essentially, he noted that Africa can ward off terrorism by exchanging information and experience.

“Egypt is ready to cooperate to fight terrorism in Africa. We can’t make progress without unity. We must get our strength from each other. We should collectively face terrorism and the countries that sponsor terrorism rather than on a country by country basis. We should exchange information and experience in order to collectively put pressure on countries that sponsor terrorism”, he said. Fayek added that real progress in Africa must be connected with respect for human right.

He noted that the role of the civil society is important. It would be recalled that Egypt also faces the challenge of terrorism as the rest of Africa. Other countries in North Africa, such as Tunisia, have also been hit by the wave of terrorism; and Libya currently is governed by two forces, one recognised and the other reportedly supported by militias.

The Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians who were killed by ISIS early this year, were reportedly killed on the beaches of Libya by the terrorist group, which currently makes part of the country their base. Fayek said terrorists are terrorists no matter what name they are called, whether it is ISIS, Boko Haram or al-Shabaab. Their goals and ideologies are the same, he said, underscoring the need to stand up as one against the evil.

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