The Declaration also reaffirmed that one of the objectives of the Marrakech meeting and its follow-up process is to strengthen South-South cooperation as a framework for African countries to benefit from synergies at the sub-regional and regional levels. The Marrakech Declaration welcomed the official announcement by five African countries of their accession to the PSI, namely Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Zambia, Togo, and Benin, bringing the number of African countries members of this initiative to 11. Malawi, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia, and Nigeria have also expressed their intent to join the initiative soon. The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), launched in 2003, is a multilateral cooperation framework with the primary objective of combating the illicit trafficking of Weapons of Mass Destruction, their delivery systems, and related materials. With these new comers, the Proliferation Security Initiative against WMD currently has 111 participating states.
