Italy to partner with Africa in the fight against terrorism

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Tuesday his country was ready to help fight terrorism on the African continent.

In an address to Ghana’s parliament, Renzi said Italy would work with the African Union to help in combating the growing problem.

“Terrorists aim on disintegrating societies by having them living in fear, possibly because they are not constructive on their own. They try to kill us when they are not able to kill, they try to force us to live in the fear. We must refuse this message and together in the name of culture, in the name of ideas, in the name of democracy, fight against this terrible message,” he said.

Across West Africa, there has been a move to try to strengthen security after a pair of high-profile attacks exposed a growing Islamist threat to foreign travellers.

Al Qaeda fighters killed 30 people in January at a hotel and restaurant in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

The assault, the country’s first militant attack on such a scale, came just two months after Islamist militants killed 20 people at a Radisson hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako.

The Italian leader is on a state visit of West Africa, which includes Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.