82% of global terrorism victims are Muslims – Issoufou

Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou yesterday lamented that Muslims are the victims of more than 82% of global terrorism.

He said the security challenges bedeviling many Muslim countries has seriously affected their spending as they end up wasting most of their annual budgets on security.

Issoufou stated this while speaking at the two-day 47th session of Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) holding in Niamey, the Niger Republic capital.

According to him, “This is the right time for Muslim countries, particularly in our Sahel region to work together and fight our security challenge.

“At military level, it is important we work together in the area of exchanging intelligence report.

“However, leaders need to understand that fighting poverty is very essential in fighting extremism and terrorism,” Issoufou added.

The President said terrorists hiding under the cover of religion have always given Islam a bad name, adding that terrorism has no place in the religion.

He said the theme of this year’s session; “United against terrorism for the sake of peace” is very timely considering the present challenges especially in the OIC member-states.

He then charged the organisation to put more effort in operationalising the OIC 2025 action plan, which according to him many needed to be done to achieve it.

Daily Trust Saturday reports that the session has Foreign Affairs Ministers of all the 57 memberstates who will discuss the major issues affecting their member countries and even minority Muslims in non-member states especially in the areas of counterterrorism and Islamophobia.