UN leader Ban Ki-moon has called on Sahel countries to improve border security to counter terrorism and for rich countries to give the impoverished nations more help to battle the scourge.
Ban warns in a new report that conflicts in the vast region — running from Mauritania on Africa’s west coast to Eritrea in the east — will only worsen unless a more integrated approach is taken to security and lifting the fast-growing populations out of poverty.
The Sahel includes conflicts in Mali and Sudan’s Darfur, some of the world’s poorest countries. The vast and arid region sees regular climate crises and the population is set to “balloon” from 150 million to 250 million in 25 years, said the report sent to the UN Security Council late Friday.
The report reflects mounting international concern over the region. Japan announced last week that it would provide $1 billion dollars to help the “stabilization” of the Sahel.
“Nowhere is the development-security nexus more evident than in the Sahel,” Ban said in the study, largely drawn up by his special envoy to the region, former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi.
The UN chief highlighted “weak governance, “widespread corruption” and “chronic political instability.”
“Only through strong, common preventative actions geared primarily towards development can we avoid the Sahel turning into an area dominated by criminal and terrorist groups that undermine our collective security.”
Ban said he was “alarmed” by the rise of groups such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has been active in Mali, Boko Haram in Nigeria and other transnational criminal organizations.
He said there were clear links between crime syndicates trafficking drugs and militants in the Sahel.
He called for greater efforts by countries and regional groups such as the African Union to boost cooperation among police, military, frontier and customs services.
Ban called for regional intelligence meetings and offered UN aid to police and judges, who he said should devote greater attention to the financing of terrorism, crime and arms trafficking.
He said there also had to be a greater “exchange of information” between airports in Latin America, Africa and Europe to counter the narcotics trade from South America through Africa.
He estimated 18 tons of cocaine worth $1.25 billion transited through West Africa in 2012, with much of it passing through the Sahel.
Ban said his proposed UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel seeks to boost security by helping to improve governance and getting aid to the 11.4 million people still threatened by malnutrition, including five million children.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel, Robert Piper, said this week that a $1.7 billion appeal for the region had only been 36 percent funded.
Last year there was major flooding and the region sees regular famines.
“Crises in this region are becoming more frequent, they’re getting closer and closer together and as a result, people are finding it harder and harder to get back on their feet before the next one comes along,” Piper said.
But Ban also said there had to be better management of scarcer development funds to make sure Sahel countries are building the right infrastructure.
“Our collective focus needs to be simultaneously on security, diplomacy and development,” he said.
