West African neighbours debate Islamist spill-over

Officials from several West African coastal states have been meeting in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to discuss how to tackle the spill-over of Islamist violence from the Sahel region.

Ghana’s National Security Minister Albert Kan-Dapaah said collaboration was needed because what he described as “terrorist” activity was crossing borders.

The meeting comes as several countries have decided to pull out of an international peacekeeping mission in Mali where a jihadist insurgency began a decade ago.

Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast are increasingly at risk of being attacked by Islamist militants pushing southwards from Sahel countries.