Credit: UN Photo / Loey Felipe /   Bintou Keita, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, speaks at United Nations Security Council debate of Sahel region at UN headquarters in New York Nov. 20, 2019.

By Gary Raynaldo   /  DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS –  NEW YORK –   The number of attacks by extremist and armed  groups continue to rise  in West Africa and the Sahel despite the presence of thousands of UN and foreign troops tasked with keeping the peace. The situation in Africa’s Sahel region is “of serious concern and urgent action is needed”, a high-level United Nations official told the Security Council on Wednesday.  The Security Council held a briefing on the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel (FC-G5S), which Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger (G5 Sahel) established in 2017 to combat terrorist and criminal groups.  According to the Secretary-General’s biannual report, “spiralling violence…has spread to coastal West Africa” and “terrorist groups have strengthened their foothold across the Sahel region, making large swathes of territory unstable and stoking ethnic violence, especially in Burkina Faso and Mali”.   Bintou Keita, Assistant UN Secretary-General for Africa, noting a surge in militancy against security forces and civilians and of “violent incidents pitting members of various communities against one another” as security in many parts of the vast area that runs west to east across the continent from Senegal to Sudan, “has continued to deteriorate”.  Twenty-four Malian soldiers were killed Monday by militants in eastern Mali.  This latest attack comes only two weeks after at least 54 soldiers were killed in an attack on an army post in northern Mali.  More than 100 soldiers in Mali have died in extremists attacks since September.    Drawing attention to a death toll that continues to mount, Keita stated that in 2019 the number of security incidences had risen three-fold in the region, as compared to previous years, specifically in Burkina Faso and Niger.  The main African countries on the front lines in the battle against terrorism in the dangerous Sahel region are Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Chad, and Burkina Faso.  And over the past six months, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger had endured some of the deadliest attacks against their militaries.

Credit: UN Photo by Evan Schneider / Alpha Barry, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Burkina Faso, addresses the Security Council meeting on Peace and Security in Africa and the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel at UN world headquarters New York Nov. 20, 2019. 

It was noted that terrorist violence has spread to the coast and along the Sahel-Sahara strip, which brings together the operational zones of the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel (FC-G5S) and the multi-national force in the Lake Chad Basin.   Keita echoed the Secretary-General’s most recent report in pointing out current support for FC-G5S, is not enough.

“The Joint Force alone cannot secure the Sahel” she underscored. “More needs to be done to prevent further deterioration.”

Security Council members welcomed the growing engagement by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).  During a 14 September extraordinary summit in Ouagadougou on terrorism, ECOWAS governments pledged to mobilise $1 billion from 2020 to 2024 for counter-terrorism efforts.