UNITED NATIONS, USA
West Africa recorded over
1,800 terrorist attacks in the first six months of the year resulting in nearly
4,600 deaths and dire humanitarian consequences, a top regional official said
Tuesday, calling the figures only “a snippet of the horrendous impact of
insecurity.”The president of West African regional bloc ECOWAS Omar Alieu Touray - courtesy
Omar Touray told the U.N.
Security Council that half a million people in the 15-nation Economic Community
of West African States, or ECOWAS, are refugees and nearly 6.2 million are
internally displaced. If there isn’t an adequate international response to the
30 million people ECOWAS assesses need food right now, he said, the number of
people in need will increase to 42 million by the end of next month.
Touray, who is president of
the ECOWAS Commission, singled out the following drivers of insecurity in the
region: terrorism, armed rebellion, organized crime, unconstitutional changes
of government, illegal maritime activities, environmental crises and fake news.
He said the region is worried
about the resurgence of the military, with three countries – Mali, Burkina Faso
and Guinea – under military rule.
“The reversal of democratic
gains runs parallel to insecurity that West Africa and the Sahel have been facing
for some time now,” he said, and insecurity continues to inflict pain and
suffering on millions of people.
For example, Touray said, the
4,593 deaths in terrorist attacks between January and June 30 include 2,725 in
Burkina Faso, 844 in Mali, 77 in Niger and 70 in Nigeria. He added that
terrorist attacks in Benin and Togo which have coastlines on the Atlantic Ocean
are a “stark indication of the expansion of terrorism to littoral states, a
situation that poses additional threat to the region.”
Touray said there have been a
multiplicity of initiatives to tackle terrorism and insecurity which have had
an impact on the ground, but there is a lack of coordination, and ECOWAS wants
to integrate the various initiatives into a regional plan of action.
ECOWAS military chiefs of
staff have held consultations to strengthen a regional standby force “in a
manner that will enable it to support member states in the fight against
terrorism and against threats to constitutional order,” he said.
Touray said the military
chiefs proposed two options, establishing a 5,000-strong brigade at an annual
cost of $2.3 billion or deployment of troops on demand at an annual cost of
$360 million.
He reiterated the African
Union’s request for African peace operations to receive funding from the U.N.
regular budget, to which all 193 U.N. member states contribute.
Touray said the military staff
recommendations were made before Mali’s military junta demanded that the more
than 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in the country leave, which was
followed by the Security Council's unanimous vote on June 30 to immediately end
the mission. Mali has brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to help
fight an Islamic insurgency.
Touray told the council that
ECOWAS leaders “have reflected on the possible adverse impact of the withdrawal
on the region and have decided to convene an extraordinary session on peace and
security by the end of August.” Ahead of that meeting, he said, Benin’s
president will visit Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea and press for “an
expeditious return to constitutional order.”
The Security Council was also
briefed by the new head of the U.N. office for West Africa, Leonardo Santos
Simão, who said the security situation in the central Sahel, especially the
border region of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, “has deteriorated further, with
multiple attacks against civilians and defense and security forces” and urged
support.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert
Wood told the council “the United States remains gravely concerned by democratic
backsliding across the region”and accused the Wagner Group of “committing human
rights abuses and endangering the safety and security of civilians,
peacekeepers and U.N. personnel.”
Russia’s deputy ambassador
Anna Evstigneeva called the security situation in West Africa and the Sahel
“difficult,” pointing to increased activity by fighters from the Islamic State
extremist group, subversive activities by Boko Haram, and the spread of
terrorist activity to coastal West African countries.
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