West African coastal states held their first major talks Thursday on strengthening cooperation against jihadist violence spilling out of the Sahel, after more countries announced they would withdraw their peacekeeping forces from Mali.

Gulf of Guinea neighbors Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo face increased risk from Islamic State allies and al-Qaeda fighters waging war across their northern borders in the Sahel.

As part of the so-called Accra Initiative, representatives of coastal states, the European Union and others met in the Ghanaian capital for talks on security and intelligence cooperation.

Ghana’s Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, said cooperation was needed as the threat of extremism “is more widespread than previously thought and transcends borders”.

“The threat landscape has been constantly changing,” he said.

In the first quarter of 2022, Africa recorded 346 attacks, almost half of them in the west of the continent, he said.

The Accra Initiative was launched in 2017 and includes Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. Mali and Niger have now also joined.

The meeting in Accra, which is expected to extend into next week, will also be attended by representatives from the EU and the UK government, as well as the 15-strong West African bloc ECOWAS.

The Sahel jihadi conflict began in northern Mali in 2012, spread to Burkina Faso and Niger in 2015, and now Gulf of Guinea states suffer sporadic attacks.

Thousands of people have been killed, more than two million displaced, and devastating damage inflicted on three of the world’s poorest economies in the three countries in the Sahel.

French and other peacekeeping missions have worked in Mali for almost a decade as a bulwark against the spread of Islamist violence.

But after two coups in Mali, the military junta has moved closer to Moscow, buying Russian weapons and allowing what Western countries call Russian mercenaries to operate.

This has eroded relations with western partners. France withdrew its troops earlier this year as part of its anti-jihadist Barkhane mission.

This week, Ivory Coast, which is locked in a separate dispute with Mali over detained Ivorian soldiers, said it would withdraw its contingent from the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA by August 2023.

Britain also announced a withdrawal from MINUSMA within six months, and Germany warned its soldiers not to leave the force “at the latest by the end of next year”.

British Defense Secretary James Heappey said on Monday he would attend the Accra meeting next week as Britain, France and others explore options to “rebalance our engagement”.

“I will join colleagues from across Europe and West Africa in Accra to coordinate our renewed response to instability in the Sahel,” he said.

Benin and Togo in particular face an increasing threat via their northern borders with Burkina Faso.

Benin, which has recorded 20 incursions since 2021, is also in talks with Rwanda over logistical assistance and military expertise.

Togo has suffered at least five attacks since November 2021, including two fatal assaults. This year alone, more than 4,000 people have been displaced in northern Togo, the government in Lome said.