New York -The Security Council has urged member states of the Sahel, West Africa and the Maghreb to coordinate their efforts to prevent threat posed to international and regional security by terrorist groups crossing their borders.
This is contained in a Presidential statement issued on Tuesday in New York by Amb. Samantha Power, the President of the Council.
The Council also urged member states to prevent terrorist groups from seeking safe havens in the Sahel region.
It welcomed the efforts being made by the AU and ECOWAS as well as member states of the Sahel to strengthen border security and regional cooperation.
The Council reaffirmed that member states must ensure that measures taken to counter terrorism complied with all their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights law, international refugee law, and international humanitarian law.
It warned that those responsible for abuses and violations of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law must be held accountable and brought to justice.
The Council called for funding for humanitarian programmes in the Sahel region which it said continued to be underfunded, hampering timely responses to humanitarian needs.
It expressed concern at the scale of humanitarian crisis caused by the activities of Boko Haram terrorist group.
It noted that the activities of the group had displaced more than 2.5 million people with an estimated 1.4 million children and 200,000 refugees in Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
It commended the support provided to the refugees by these governments, including the assistance of humanitarian actors and relevant United Nations entities.
The Council also commended the AU, ECOWAS and the Lake Chad Basin Commission member states’ as well as Benin Republic’s courageous and active contributions to peace and stability in the Sahel region.
It noted that the creation of the Multinational Joint Task force (MNJTF) had led to steady progress in the fight against Boko Haram.
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It called on the international community to fulfill pledges made towards boosting economic growth, eradicating poverty and supporting governance reforms, through projects that would support peace and security efforts in the Sahel region.
It called on all relevant entities of the United Nations system to focus on identifying and funding such projects as a matter of priority.
The Council also urged the United Nations system to fund Member States of the Sahel, including the G5 Sahel Member States and relevant regional organisations. (NAN)