ACCRA, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Seven member states of the Accra Initiative are in the position to resist the spillover of terrorism and violent extremism from the Sahelian region into coastal West Africa, Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said Tuesday.

Akufo-Addo made the pledge at the opening of the presidential summit of the Accra Initiative, a joint security cooperation among seven West African coastal and Sahelian countries to curb the spread of terrorism in the region.

"The worsening security situation in the Sahel region threatens to engulf the entire West Africa region," the president warned, adding that the terrorist groups, emboldened by their apparent successes in the region, are seeking new operational grounds, a development that has triggered the southward drift of the menace towards coastal West Africa.

"Despite the relatively young stage in its evolution, the Accra Initiative has successfully demonstrated the imperatives of intergovernmental collaborations towards mounting a strong fight against the spread of terrorism from the Sahel region to coastal West Africa," said the Ghanaian president.

He said the initiative was established in 2017 to complement the efforts of existing counter-terrorism frameworks in Africa, adding that the initiative will address this spillover of terrorism into the West African coastal states. Enditem

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