Michel Xavier Biang, Permanent Representative of Gabon to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of October, chairs the Security Council meeting on the situation concerning Iraq at UN world headquarters Oct, 04, 2022. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

By   Gary   Raynaldo   –  DIPLOMATIC   TIMES

UNITED   NATIONS  –   NEW  YORK  –  GABON  officially took over as President of the UN Security Council Monday  for the month of October  with a focus on the peace and security in Africa.  Michel Xavier Biang, Permanent Representative of Gabon to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of October laid out the Council’s programme of work for the month during a press briefing with reporters at UN headquarters in New York. 

Ambassador Biang told reporters that, despite the 15-member organ’s fragmentation preventing it from “full, concerted, sustainable action”, his country’s presidency would “strive to make efficiency, transparency and consensus key words in tackling substantive issues, as well as in its methods and means of working.

The month of October would provide an opportunity to focus on the African continent, given that 7 out of the United Nations 13 peacekeeping operations are located there, the Gabon Ambassador  added.

Michel Xavier Biang, Permanent Representative of the Gabonese Republic to the United Nations, speaks during the installation ceremony of Non-Permanent Members of Security Council for 2022-2023 at UN world headquarters in New York Jan. 04, 2022 (UN Photo/ Eskinder Debebe)

Gabon plans to organise two signature events. The first signature event is a debate on “Peace and security in Africa: strengthening the fight against  financing of armed groups and terrorists through the illicit trafficking of natural resources”. Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba is expected to chair  the meeting. AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security Bankole Adeoye, an official from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC), and a representative of civil society are likely to brief. The second signature event is a debate on “Climate and security in Africa”. UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed; Tanguy Gahouma-Bekale, former Chair of the Africa Group of Negotiators on Climate Change; and Patrick Youssef, ICRC Regional Director for Africa, are the anticipated briefers. 

GABON Ambassador Says Burkina Faso Coup D’Etat is a “Deplorable Trend”  in West Africa 

Responding to a question from a journalist Monday on the recent military coup d’etat in Burkina Faso — its second in eight months — the Gabon UN Ambassador said it represented a “deplorable trend in the region”, on the heels of four other coups, including one in Mali and another in Guinea, as well as an attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau.  Captain Ibrahim Traoré announced on public television Monday that he had replaced Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba as president of Burkina Faso. 

 “It is extremely concerning, and we wish to draw attention to the root causes of such instability, including through our debate on climate and security,” he said.

Africa issues on the UN Security Council programme of work in October are:

-Western Sahara, consultations on the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and the mandate renewal of MINURS

• Mali, briefing and consultations on the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization
Mission in Mali (MINUSMA)

• Great Lakes region, the biannual briefing and consultation

• Libya, briefing and consultations on the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the
mandate renewal of UNSMIL

• Somalia, briefing by the Chair of the 751 Somalia Sanctions Committee and the mandate renewal of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM)

• Sudan/South Sudan, briefing and consultation’s on the UN Interim Security Force for
Abyei (UNISFA).

 GABON Elected Seat On UN Security Council for AFRICA 

Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese Republic, addresses the general debate of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly. (UN Photo)

In January 2021,  The Republic of  Gabon  won a seat on the  United Nations Security Council for 2022/23.  The Security Council is a body of 15 members, five of which are permanent and have veto power: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China.  Albania, Brazil, Gabon, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were also elected by the 75th session of the General Assembly.   Gabon joins Ghana as the other African nation elected seat on the UN Security Council.  Gabon and Ghana bring to three the number of African countries on the 15-member UN body.  Kenya had already been on the Council since January 2021. The East African country’s two-year term expired at the end of December 2021.