Ghana’s Interior Minister, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, has officially welcomed intelligence chiefs and senior security officials from across West Africa and the Sahel to a High-Level Consultation Conference on Regional Cooperation and Security in Accra.

The two-day conference aims to bolster regional collaboration in addressing terrorism, violent extremism, piracy, and transnational organised crime.

Convened under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama, the initiative seeks to move the region away from fragmented security responses toward a unified, integrated framework that links security, development, and social cohesion.

Ministers, intelligence leaders, and other senior stakeholders are meeting to discuss the evolving security landscape in the sub-region and identify practical solutions to shared challenges.

Vice President Her Excellency Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang highlighted the importance of collective action, stressing that threats such as terrorism financing, money laundering, and arms proliferation transcend borders and require coordinated regional responses.

She urged all countries to contribute actively to building a secure and prosperous West Africa.

Minister Muntaka emphasised the growing complexity of security threats, noting the intensification of terrorism and violent extremism in the Central Sahel, where armed groups exploit governance gaps, economic hardship, intercommunal tensions, and climate-related pressures.

He also pointed to structural vulnerabilities such as youth unemployment, weak border management, and declining social cohesion as factors compounding security risks.

“Transnational crimes, including illegal migration, smuggling, drug trafficking, and cybercrime, continue to challenge Ghana, though intelligence-led operations have achieved notable successes,” he said.

He urged intelligence chiefs to engage in candid, innovative, and forward-looking deliberations focused on trust-building, coordinated action, and sustainable, citizen-centred solutions.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, also called for a rethink of current security approaches, emphasising that no single nation can combat these threats alone and advocating for a regional framework that encourages collective action.

The conference is expected to produce recommendations that will guide regional security cooperation and inform the strategies of West African nations in confronting shared security threats.