Morocco Urges Security Cooperation with Algeria to Combat Terrorism in Sahel Region

The new director of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) of Morocco, Cherkaoui Habboub, deplored, in an interview with 2M, "the total lack of security cooperation with Algeria". According to him, the existence of such cooperation between the two countries would have made it possible to put the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) terrorist organization, the most active in the Sahelo-Saharan region, and its leader, Adnane Abou Walid al-Sahraoui, out of harm’s way.

This cooperation is more necessary than ever, indicates Cherkaoui Habboub who stresses that the current level of terrorist alert in Morocco is worrying. "The threat is serious," he said, warning about the massive arrival in the Sahelo-Saharan zone of terrorists from the combat zones in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

The director of the BCIJ also stated that all the Moroccan security services dedicated to the fight against terrorism work in good synergy of action and that Morocco is willing to strengthen its cooperation with its partners, namely the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, in the context of this fight.

"It was the Moroccan intelligence services who indicated to the American army in Afghanistan the location of Osama bin Laden’s training camp... It was also them who located in Belgium, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris," recalled Cherkaoui Habboub to attest to the effectiveness of the Moroccan system in the fight against terrorism.