The United Nations underlined, on Tuesday 10 January, the importance of collaboration and resilience in dealing with violent extremists in West Africa and the Sahel.
Speaking before the Security Council, the Deputy Special Representative for this region, Giovanie Biha, warned of worsening insecurity, particularly in the Sahel.
“Insecurity has once again worsened in the region despite the efforts made by the national security forces and their international partners”, she lamented, denouncing the forced closure in the Sahel of more than ten thousand schools and seven thousand health centers due to attacks by armed groups, violent extremists and criminal networks.
The UN official said these non-state armed groups are fighting each other for supremacy and control of resources, “pushing states to the margins and causing untold misery for millions of people who have had to leave their communities to settle. safe”.
She also indicated that countries along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea have experienced an increase in the number of attacks on their territory, threatening transport arteries to landlocked countries further north, a situation which makes more necessary, according to her, collective efforts against insecurity such as the creation of a joint force within the framework of the Accra Initiative.