Nairobi — African countries are still at a high risk of terror attacks, an African Union official has said.

This is because they lack the capacity and resources to stop the vice that is responsible for the death of many people over the last two decades. Mr Geofrey Mugumya, an AU director in charge of peace and security, expressed concern that most of these countries could not effectively police their borders making it easy for terrorists to filter through.

"The toll of terrorism and the price Africans have had to pay for these outrageous criminal acts can hardly be estimated in statistical figures," said Mr Mugumya.

He added; "as a threat to both human and state security, terrorism has also made governance and statehood in Africa fragile especially in countries where there are wars. It's now time for African countries to come up with formidable measures to end this vice." He was addressing a key security council committee on counter-terrorism at the United Nations headquarters in Gigiri, Nairobi.

The team will examine ways that countries can employ to secure their borders against terrorists and potential terror acts.

The three-day meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee will also focus on issues such as hindering terrorist movements across national boundaries, bolstering the ability of countries to detect illicit arms shipments and preventing the abuse of the refugee and asylum system.

The talks, whose theme is prevention of terrorist movement and effective border security, are also expected to discuss ways and means of denying safe havens to terrorists, improve border and customs controls, enhance information sharing and exchange best practices on terror war.

Among proposals contained in AU's plan of action to contain terrorism, include enhanced border control by all African states to screen out genuine visitors from terrorists.

The union also proposes regular updating and harmonisation of legal systems to keep up with the emerging challenges on terrorism apart from the exchange of information and intelligence.