http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-12/12/c_133848841.htm
UN envoy urges world to remain engaged in Sahel region
English.news.cn 2014-12-12 04:01:09
Xinhua
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- A UN special envoy on Thursday urged
the international community to ramp up its efforts to help the people in
the Sahel, a diverse and troubled region which has been haunted by a
proliferation of militant groups and " disquieting" levels of food
insecurity.
"The security situation in the Sahel continues to be impacted by the crises
in Libya, northern Nigeria, northern Mali and the Central African
Republic," UN Special Envoy for the Sahel, Guebre Sellassie, said in her
end-of-year briefing to the 15-nation UN body.
Sellassie last updated the Security Council in June providing a similarly
bleak overview of the situation in the Sahel -- a vast expanse of territory
stretching from Mauritania to Eritrea, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali,
Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan.
The countries of Africa's Sahel region -- struggling to cope with
terrorism, weak governance and recurrent droughts -- need assistance to lay
the foundations for stability and sustainable development, she said, urging
greater cooperation among the region 's governments, neighbors and
international partners.
In her Thursday briefing, however, the special envoy said the region was
facing an added threat as reports that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL) militants had established a bulwark in the Libyan desert.
"The persistent allegations that the Islamic State has set up training
camps in Libya are particularly worrisome," she said. "If the situation in
Libya is not quickly brought under control, many states in the region could
be destabilized in the near future."
Coupled with the ISIL threat was the deteriorating security situation in
northern Mali where deadly attacks targeting UN "blue helmets" and
communities living along the border with Niger were steadily intensifying,
she said.
This came despite progress achieved in the inter-Malian talks held in the
Algerian capital of Algiers and an agreement by peacekeeping countries to
strengthen regional security cooperation, she said.
In addition, instability in north Nigeria also endangered the wider region
as "unspeakable Boko Haram atrocities" continued to pose a threat to some
Sahel communities and countries.
As a result of the militant groups' continuing operations, an estimated
100,000 people had fled into Niger's Diffa region, further exacerbating the
Sahel's humanitarian situation which remained "disquieting."
"Five million more people have become food insecure since the last
reporting period. The number of children affected by acute malnutrition in
the Sahel also increased from five million in January to 6.4 million
today," Sellassie said, noting that spiraling insecurity and conflicts had
already displaced some 3.3 million people, amounting to a two-fold increase
from January.
Against that backdrop, the overall 1.9-billion-U.S. dollar humanitarian
appeal for the region continued to remain underfunded, she said.
Nevertheless, the special envoy indicated that "some progress" had been
achieved, including a European Union-led partnership which was continuing
to provide "a critical framework for regional cooperation on resilience," a
UN Development Program (UNDP) initiative aimed at supporting Mali to
mainstream social cohesion in its delivery of social services as well as
help build the capacity of government institutions in Mauritania and Niger
on conflict prevention and the protection of human right and a UN Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC) plan to support the development of accessible,
efficient and accountable criminal justice systems across the Sahel -- a
region crisscrossed by drug trafficking and illicit trade.
Despite the "important and necessary steps" taken by the international
community and regional partners in boosting the Sahel's security and
economic outlook, Sellassie said, member states could not afford to become
distracted from the perilous situation on the ground.
"The Sahel region continues to face multifaceted challenges to peace and
development," she said. "Given the deterioration of the political and
security situation in the region and the adverse impact on humanitarian and
development gains, the need for sustaining Security Council attention on
the Sahel is greater than ever."
On May 1, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Sellassie, who is from
Ethiopia, as his new special envoy for the Sahel.
Editor: yan
Received on Fri Dec 12 2014 - 08:08:07 EST