President Mahama calls for cooperation on security in Sahel

President John Dramini Mahama has called for a deeper collaboration among West African states to ensure regional security, particularly in the Sahel. 

The President pledged Ghana’s support for countries directly affected by the ongoing tensions and stated that the threat of insurgency and terrorism in the Sahel region required a collective effort to prevent its spread.

“In Ghana, we have a proverb that if your neighbour’s house is on fire, you must assist him to quench it, otherwise when it burns down his house it can spread to yours.” So, security is a common object and we must work with one another to make sure that our region is safe,” he said.

Visit

President Mahama made the remarks during a joint press briefing with Mali's Prime Minister, Abdoulaye Maïga, in Accra yesterday.

Prime Minister Maiga arrived in Accra last Wednesday evening and was welcomed at the airport by a high-level government delegation, led by the Legal Counsel to the President, Marietta Brew.

The two leaders, who held a closed-door meeting before briefing the press, reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening ties between Ghana and Mali, including enhancing trade and security cooperation.

President Mahama also highlighted the historical ties between Ghana and Mali, stating that a significant Malian population had lived in Ghana for centuries.

He pledged to ensure the free flow of trade among West African countries.

“God put us together in this sub-region for a purpose, so we continue to inter-marry. We will work to ensure the free flow of trade among our countries,” President Mahama said.

He also assured the Prime Minister that the government would renew cooperation with Mali and iron out any differences between the two countries once the government settled in.

“We note the stalled progress in terms of our technical cooperation, the last meeting was in 2011 and we were supposed to meet in 2012 in Mali. Unfortunately, the situation at the time did not permit us to continue it and so we have to revive the committees so that we can iron out any bottlenecks that exist between our two countries,” he said. 

Sovereignty

For his part, Prime Minister Maiga echoed President Mahama's sentiments and congratulated him on his electoral victory, which he described as a victory for Pan-Africanism.

“We are here to extend greetings from the President of Mali on behalf of the people, the win for President Mahama is a win for Pan-Africanism because he has a heritage from the first President Kwame Nkrumah and President John Jerry Rawlings,” he said.

Prime Minister Maiga emphasised the importance of collaboration between Ghana, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso to combat terrorism and promote African sovereignty.

“We are fighting for African sovereignty and it is the same vision for President Mahama,” he said.