Jorge Fernández Díaz expresses Spain's commitment to helping achieve institutional consolidation in Sahel countries as part of fight against terrorism, organised crime and border security

At this summit, the Home Affairs Ministers from the G5 Sahel nations - plus Spain, France and Senegal as invited guests - discussed various issues related to the fight against radicalisation, Jihadi terrorism and people trafficking.

In his speech, the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, said that Spain wishes to help achieve institutional consolidation in the Sahel countries - especially regarding the fight against terrorism, organised crime and border security - by providing assistance to the creation of state security structures and police training to members of their State law enforcement agencies.

Jorge Fernández Díaz said that "terrorism is the main threat we are all currently facing". It is not a passing threat, said the Spanish minister, and hence "our efforts against this common threat should be sustained and long-term".

The Spanish Minister for Home Affairs shared Spain's experience in the fight against terrorism with his African partners. The Spanish minister admitted that this experience "has shown us that it is possible to defeat terrorism and radicalisation, but that it requires a firm political and social commitment, delicate and constant policing and judicial action, and good international cooperation".

The Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, explained that standing together against the terrorists is essential for combating terrorism. Jorge Fernández Díaz recalled that, on 2 February, the President of the Government and the leader of the main opposition party in Spain signed a Government Pact to Fight Jihadi Terrorism that includes reforming the Criminal Code to establish new terrorist offences, as called for by Resolution 2178 of the United Nations Security Council.

Jorge Fernández Díaz shared the raft of legislative and administrative measures adopted by Spain to combat this new Jihadi terrorism with the other home affairs ministers from the G5 Sahel nations. In this regard, Jorge Fernández Díaz stressed that the lack of hierarchical structure and well-defined roles within Jihadi terrorism, together with the propaganda activity carried out by Al Qaeda and the terrorist organisation DAESH, is the reason why indoctrination and training has been classified as a terrorist offence, expressly including passive training. On this point, the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs underlined the importance of efforts against the financing of terrorism and the various ways of collaborating with terrorist organisations.

The Minister for Home Affairs was also keen to mention the classification of the acts of attracting and recruiting new combatants, the glorification of terrorism and the spreading of messages via the Internet and the social media networks to incite others to commit terrorist offences, as new offences.

As regards police efforts, Jorge Fernández Díaz stressed that Spain has carried out 124 operations against Jihadi terrorism since 2004, leading to a total of 568 arrests. Since the start of this legislature, 38 operations have been carried out against Jihadi terrorism in Spain, with a total of 104 arrests. Jorge Fernández Díaz particularly mentioned the arrest in Spain on 30 May 2014 of the first Spanish combatant returning from the Sahel. The Spanish minister explained that this arrest took place as part of a joint operation between the Spanish National Police Force and the Spanish Guardia Civil in Melilla to break up an international network engaged in attracting and dispatching Jihadi fighters to join terrorist organisations based in Mali and Libya, that was responsible for sending at least 26 Jihadi fighters to Al Qaeda terrorist groups in the Sahel.

Precisely in order to combat radicalisation in the Sahel, the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, said that Spain has increased its bilateral cooperation, as well as its cooperation through the European Union, with the countries of the region and their neighbours in West Africa, the Maghreb and the Mashriq. The minister explained that, with Mauritania and Senegal, "we have extended our excellent cooperation in the fight against illegal immigration into the fight against terrorism and organised crime, and, with Mali, we maintain excellent relations based on an agreement to combat organised crime".

Jorge Fernández Díaz used his speech at this African forum to express his commitment to developing inter-ministerial and police cooperation with Chad and Burkina Faso. He also recalled that, on 30 April, Spain and Egypt signed an agreement on combating crime to foster bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism, radicalisation and organised crime.

In the presence of his French counterpart, Bernard Cazeneuve, Jorge Fernández Díaz underlined "the very close and effective collaboration that has taken place with France for many years and enabled us to defeat ETA terrorism together", an experience in enhanced cooperation that the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs describes as "highly useful" for other countries.

Bilateral meeting with the Home Affairs Minister of Niger

The Minister for Home Affairs of Spain, Jorge Fernández Díaz, attended a bilateral meeting last night with his Nigerien counterpart, Massaoudou Hassoumi, with whom he signed a partnership agreement with the status of International Treaty on combating crime aimed at boosting bilateral cooperation against terrorism, radicalisation and organised crime.

Hence, under this agreement, Spain and Niger undertake to combat crime, especially organised crime, in such areas as terrorism, personal integrity, people trafficking, illegal immigration, kidnapping, smuggling, money laundering and the arms trade, among other forms of unlawful activity, as well as to exchange information and collaborate on investigations.

After signing the agreement, the Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, expressed his confidence that the agreement with Niger will have the same results as those signed previously with Mauritania and Senegal, enabling a reduction in illegal immigration by people from the two countries.

The Spanish Minister for Home Affairs stressed that this agreement will also foster police training and technical assistance to Niger in areas where Spain is highly experienced. Furthermore, this agreement includes the creation of a joint committee to discuss matters of interest to the two countries. In this regard, Jorge Fernández Díaz suggested to Massaoudou Hassoumi that the first meeting of the Spain-Niger Joint Committee should be held in Madrid in October.

At this meeting, the two home affairs ministers discussed bilateral collaboration in the fight against terrorism, which both of them described as fluid but requiring additional effort and promotion, and cooperation in the fight against organised crime, especially the illegal trafficking of drugs, weapons, explosives and people.

As regards the fight against illegal immigration, Jorge Fernández Díaz and Massaoudou Hassoumi studied the efforts being made by Niger to counteract the consequences being caused by the crisis in Mali and Libya and the actions by Boko Haram - the fundamentalist Islamic terrorist group active in Nigeria - on security and control of the Nigerien borders.

Jorge Fernández Díaz informed his Nigerien counterpart about the project that Spain presented to the Rabat Process Steering Committee meeting held in Lisbon on 15 and 16 April to create a Joint Investigation Team (Spanish acronym: ECI) between the National Police Forces of Spain and Niger, similar to the one that already exists in Mauritania which is producing positive results.