The West Africa Capacity-Building Working Group (WA WG) Co-Chairs, Algeria and Germany, hosted the WA WG’s Fifth Plenary Meeting in Cotonou, Benin from 11 to 13 June 2024, with the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as their implementing partner. The meeting brought together regional and international partners to consult on the priority areas for counterterrorism capacity-building in the region for the coming two years.

On 11 and 12 June, the GCTF Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems and New, Emerging, and Disruptive Technologies Initiative held a virtual exploratory dialogue on the terrorist use of AI and its impact on transnational threats and unmanned systems. The dialogue is a foundation to support international partners in their counterterrorism work by increasing understanding of threats and identify appropriate mitigations.

On 4 June, the Initiative Leads, Germany and Kenya, held an interactive virtual workshop with key experts and practitioners to discuss evidence on the nexus between climate fragility and vulnerability NS violent extremism conducive to terrorism. 

The GCTF Criminal Justice and Rule of Law Working Group (CJ-RoL WG), co-chaired by Italy and Nigeria, with the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) as the Implementing Partner, organized an expert meeting to discuss existing good practices to protect witnesses and justice officials participating in terrorism cases’ proceedings. The one-day expert meeting was followed by the second Plenary Meeting of the Working Group under the auspices of its Co-Chairs.