Credit:  Gary Raynaldo /  United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres

By Gary Raynaldo    /     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED NATIONS   –   NEW  YORK  –  United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres  “strongly” condemned an attack carried out  by Jihadists in northern Burkina Faso that left 35 civilians dead, mostly women.  According to news reports, suspected Islamist militants on motorbikes killed dozens of civilians, the majority of whom were women, in an attack that lasted several hours. 

The Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack conducted by unidentified gunmen on 24 December in Arbinda, Soum province, northern Burkina Faso. He expresses his deep condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured. The Secretary-General conveys the solidarity of the United Nations to the Government and people of Burkina Faso and reiterates the continued support of the United Nations to the Governments of Burkina Faso and the other countries of the Sahel region in their efforts to fight terrorism and violent extremism.”
 
-Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General

United Nations Offers Continued Support To Burkina Faso Amid Terror Attacks

The U.N. Secretary General  also reiterated the continued support of the United Nations  to the Governments of Burkina Faso and the other countries of the Sahel region in their efforts to fight terrorism and violent extremism.

West Africa Shaken By “Unprecedented” Extremist and Ethnic Violence: UN Envoy

Credit: unowas /  Mohamed Ibn Chambas.  Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS)

Violent Islamist attacks across the West African Sahel region have doubled every year since 2015, according to a recently published security brief by the African Center for Strategic Studies.  In 2019, there have been more than 700 such violent episodes, the ACSS brief reports.  Fatalities linked to these events have increased from 225 to 2,000 during the same period. This surge in violence has uprooted more than 900,000 people, including 500,000 in Burkina Faso in 2019 alone,  the brief notes.   Attacks are largely concentrated in central Mali, northern and eastern Burkina Faso, and western Niger.  Just last week, islamist militants killed at least 71 soldiers in an attack on a remote military camp in Niger near the border with Mali. The UN Security Council on December 16  held a briefing on the inter-communal violence and terrorism in West Africa.  Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the UN envoy for West Africa and the vast Sahel region, told the Security Council that in recent months, the region has been “shaken by unprecedented violence”.   An “horrific attack against the Inates military camp, in Niger, still haunts the region”, he asserted, adding that “relentless attacks on civilian and military targets have shaken public confidence”.  While acknowledging the nexus between terrorism, organized crime and intercommunal violence, Chambas argued the importance of distinguishing each as a driver of violence.