The United Nations Security Council has backed a China-sponsored statement that says terrorism and violent extremism pose a significant and growing threat to peace and security in Africa.

The statement issued in the name of Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative and council president for March, calls for greater international support to strengthen the ability of African nations to fight back.

More than a dozen UN member states and the European Union made statements at Wednesday's council session, during which particular concern was expressed about the security situation in parts of the vast Sahel region of western and north-central Africa, the Lake Chad Basin region and the Horn of Africa.

"The Security Council calls on the international community to strengthen its political commitment and to consider mobilizing more sustainable ... resources and expertise to strengthen the capacity of African countries in countering terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism," the presidential statement said.

In his earlier contribution to the open debate, Zhang said Africa constitutes an important part of the global fight against terrorism. 

He urged the international community to adopt uniform standards in its activities, avoiding specific references to religions and ethnicities.

"We support the international community in providing counterterrorism assistance to African countries with no political strings attached," Zhang added.

Call for focus on root causes

In a briefing to the Security Council, UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo pointed to al-Shabab extremists threatening security in Somalia and East Africa and affiliates of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda extremist groups collaborating to stage increasingly sophisticated attacks in West Africa, especially in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Fatima Kyari Mohammed, the permanent observer of the African Union (AU), warned that terrorism is now spreading to parts of Africa that had been previously spared. 

"We cannot ignore the fact that these regions are at war today – a real war in which dozens of soldiers and civilians die almost every week," she said. 

Both Dicarlo and Fatima called for a greater focus to be placed on prevention and root causes, with the UN official highlighting such issues as poverty, weak governance, inter-communal tensions, youth employment and gender inequality.   

Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière, speaking on behalf of France, which intervened in its former colony Mali in 2013 after militants took control in the north the previous year, spoke of the importance of targeting populations most exposed to the threat of terrorism, including women and youth, noting that by 2050 nearly half of the continent will be under the age of 25.

The call for greater resources to Africa follows an announcement in February by the AU that it will not start financing security operations from a new fund until 2023 because it has received fewer contributions than anticipated.

Only 164 million U.S. dollars – less than half of the projected 400 million U.S. dollars – had been raised up to that point.

The AU, which groups 55 countries, had hoped the fund for peacekeeping missions, mediation and conflict prevention would have got going this year.

(Top Photo: An ambulance carries injured people to hospital in Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria after a suicide bomb attack, May 28, 2018. /VCG)