The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have referred to as for an pressing overhaul of Qur’anic training throughout West Africa as a part of efforts to curb rising terrorism and violent extremism within the area.
Talking yesterday in Abuja on the closing ceremony of the West African Islamic Convention on Safety and Governance, ECOWAS President, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, warned that the 2025 World Terrorism Index exhibits a major shift in world terrorism patterns, with Africa, notably the Sahel, rising because the epicentre of terrorist exercise.
Touray famous that hundreds of thousands of younger persons are enrolled in conventional Qur’anic faculties, but these establishments haven’t obtained the eye or assets wanted to operate as protected, trendy studying environments.
“We have to enhance and modernize the Qur’anic college system and convert them into conducive and formalized facilities of studying and financial empowerment,” he stated.
“The current scenario makes each academics and college students weak to recruitment by legal and terrorist organizations.”
He recommended non secular leaders throughout West Africa and the Sahel, from international locations together with Senegal, Ghana, Chad, Niger, Benin, Guinea, Morocco and Mauritania, for taking the lead in efforts to modernize Qur’anic training.
Touray added that whereas ECOWAS has deployed each kinetic and non-kinetic methods by means of its Regional Motion Plan Towards Terrorism, the convention’s give attention to the function of Islamic organizations in prevention and countering violent extremism aligns with the bloc’s non-military initiatives.
He harassed the necessity to direct the power of the area’s huge youth inhabitants towards productive actions, noting that the situations confronted by many Qur’anic college students require pressing consideration.
The Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, lamented that terrorism-related deaths have risen by 250 p.c prior to now decade.
He stated discussions throughout the three-day convention highlighted the necessity for coordinated, cross-border collaboration to deal with the hyperlinks between conventional Islamic training, youth vulnerability and insecurity.
“As we undertake the Regional Declaration on Bettering Islamic Schooling and Countering Violent Extremism, I urge all stakeholders to stay dedicated,” he stated.
“Allow us to empower Islamic organizations to advertise peace, tolerance and coexistence, as guided by the Prophet Muhammad, who stated: ‘None of you actually believes till he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.’”
Sanusi appealed for collective motion to construct “a area the place each particular person can dwell in peace, safety and dignity,” and to create a safer future for kids and communities throughout West Africa.
