We need to get ahead of Islamist militant threat, says Ghana’s president

PARIS — Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo on Thursday said West Africa’s coastal states had an opportunity to steal a march on the growing threat from Islamist militants and work more closely with European allies.

Akufo-Addo was speaking in Paris after President Emmanuel Macron announced the withdrawal of French forces from Mali and said more assistance would be provided to Gulf of Guinea countries that were being increasingly targeted by militants. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Richard Lough and John Stonestreet)