The remarks came at the opening of the meeting of directors general of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA) for North Africa, chaired this year by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which holds the presidency of the CISSA North Africa Regional Bureau.

CISSA Executive Secretary Jackson Victor Hamata said he was "deeply concerned" by the growing convergence and "symbiotic partnership" among terrorist groups, armed groups and criminal networks, which makes the fight against these threats even harder.

He said the response lies in "continuing to strengthen cooperation," building the resilience of local communities and bringing border communities into national security strategies.

CISSA Chairman Abdelmajid Ibrahim Abdelkarim, who also heads Libya’s intelligence service, described the spread and use of drugs in North Africa as a highly serious issue, saying it poses a direct threat to state security and social stability.

Ali Hamma Malou, the SADR’s national director for security, documentation and institutional protection, who chairs the North Africa region, voiced mounting concern over drug trafficking and consumption across the region.

He noted that North Africa’s position as a crossroads between West Africa, Europe and the Middle East leaves it "especially exposed" to international smuggling networks.

In his opening address, Sahrawi Prime Minister Bouchraya Hamoudi Bayoun said a security-based approach remains essential to tackling drug trafficking networks, "drying up their funding and dismantling their cells."

Officials from the intelligence services of the region’s member states are taking part: Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, the SADR and Tunisia.

Also attending are senior representatives from CISSA member states Botswana, Zimbabwe, Sudan, South Africa and Namibia, as well as the CISSA Executive Secretariat and delegates from the specialized African mechanisms taking part in the meeting.

The meeting is addressing the spread and use of drugs in the region and will consider and adopt resolutions stemming from the recommendations of the committee’s expert-level meeting.

CISSA warns of deepening nexus between terrorism and criminal networks