East African leaders and western security officials met on Thursday in Jordan to discuss measures to combat terrorism in the region.
The ten-million-strong monarchy, which hosts US military bases, sees itself as a key ally in the fight against terrorism.
Reports indicate that Jordan’s King Abdullah attended some of the discussions, which focused on co-ordinating a response to “newly found” terrorist threats.
Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique and Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo attended the meetings, as well as security officials from the United States, Europe, East Asia and Latin America.
The sessions were held in the Red Sea city of Aqaba, Jordan, where the monarch owns a palace, as part of the so-called Aqaba Process, a counter-terrorism conference launched by King Abdullah in 2015.
The harbour is frequently visited by Western military warships on anti-piracy missions off the coast of Africa.
According to a research, the Middle East and North Africa region accounted for 39% of all terrorism-related deaths worldwide between 2007 and 2021.
Last year, 7,142 people died as a result of terrorism around the world, a decrease of 1.2 percent from the previous year and a third of the amount recorded in 2015.
