Nigeria
Proposes New AU Peacekeeping Funding Mechanism
Nigeria
has urged the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on a new
financing mechanism for African Union (AU) peacekeeping
operations.
Speaking during a debate on Peace and Security in Africa,
Nigeria’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador
Bukun- Ola Onemola said the proposed new approach would help in
strengthening AU's capacity to respond to the ever growing
peacekeeping and security challenges.
He recalled the decision of world leaders at the Year 2005 World
Summit, which affirmed that the development of African
peacekeeping capacity should be the central objective of the UN
in the next decade.
The Nigerian envoy, however, noted that for the AU to continue
to undertake its responsibilities effectively and efficiently,
it required robust support for its existing peace and security
architecture.
Onemola identified Peace and Security Council, the Continental
Early Warning System, the Panel of the Wise, the African Standby
Force and the Special Fund as some of the required supports.
He said Africa also needed sustainable, flexible and predictable
funding for peacekeeping operations, in addition to the support
required to facilitate the building of the continent's
peacekeeping capacity and institutional mechanism.
He expressed Nigerian government’s gratitude and appreciation
for the close collaboration between the UN and AU in
strengthening partnership in the area of peace and security.
He stressed the need for a robust and more strategic alliance
between the AU Peace and Security Council and the UN Security
Council to meet up with the challenges of regional peace and
security.
In the same vein, the UN under Secretary-General for
Peacekeeping Operations, Alain Le Roy, said that the
international community must more actively and systematically
support the African Union's peacekeeping role with enhanced
funding and training.
He echoed the opinion of Onemola that doing so would bring
stability and development to the continent.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray
Chambers, has applauded the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria for providing thirty million
insecticides- treated mosquito nets to Nigeria.
The initiative, the largest-ever, was announced by the Global
Fund last Friday.
Chambers said in a statement in New York that, ’’the Fund's
unprecedented commitment to Nigeria, which bears one quarter of
the global malaria burden, would protect millions of people from
malaria and save over one hundred thousand lives.’’
He also described the initiative as, ’’the single largest
allocation toward meeting UN Secretary-General's goal of
universal net coverage by next year.’’
Chambers said that fifty-six per cent of endemic population has
access to life-saving long lasting insecticide treated mosquito
nets and that the Nigerian government was committed to meeting
these goals.
Reducing the incidence of malaria is one of the many
health-related targets of the Millennium Development Goals.
NAN/Yinka
