UN African offices meet over threat to security

UN African offices meet over threat to security

The UN political offices in West and Central Africa have held joint meeting on common cross-border threats, such as piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

A report jointly published in New York said the offices attributed the security issues to the aftermath of the Libyan crisis on security across the Sahel and the activities of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Said Djinnit, and the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Central Africa, Abou Moussa had met in Dakar.

The meeting

The offices said the meeting between Djinnit, who is also head of the UN Office for West Africa and Moussa, who spearheads the UN Office for Central Africa, was aimed at creating a regional approach to conflict prevention and peace-building.

Moussa spoke on ongoing efforts to control the LRA while Djinnit explained the work of the Cameroon Nigeria Mixed Commission, the UN-backed mechanism for peaceful resolution of the long-standing border dispute between the two countries.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently addressed the increased insecurity in a message to a meeting of the UN Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa.

Ban, who emphasised the need to reduce the flow of arms in the region, stated that he had deployed a team to assess the scope of the piracy threat in the Gulf of Guinea.

NAN/Adekusibe/Cokey