Francois Fall, the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Central Africa and the head of the
UN Regional Office for the region (UNOCA), has called on the international
community to place the Boko Haram terrorist sect on watchlist.
Fall stated this at the UN
headquarters in New York while briefing the Security Council on developments in
the Central African sub-region, NAN reports.
Fall said: “the Nigeria-based
Boko Haram extremist group was also a malicious threat to the region that the
international community needed to watch carefully, as it continues to launch
‘indiscriminate attacks’ against security forces as well as civilians.
“Efforts to stamp out Boko Haram
should also focus on addressing the root causes of the insurgency,” said the UN
envoy.
He warned that the rising
violence in the Central African Republic threatened to spill across the border
into neighbouring countries, creating further instability, and urged continued
and coordinated regional efforts to bolster peace and security.
He said a comprehensive and
cautious approach is needed against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as the
African Union works to replace its ongoing initiative against the rebel group.
Fall however warned that
replacing the AU’s initiative to neutralise the LRA should not leave a security
vacuum that the group could exploit to relaunch and intensify its campaign of
violence.
He informed the 15-member Council
of a number of recent election campaigns, including the October parliamentary
ballots in São Tomé and Príncipe, as well as legislative and local elections in
Gabon, adding that elections in Chad, scheduled for November, had been
postponed.
“I encourage the Chadian
authorities to organise these elections as soon as possible and call on the
international community to provide the necessary financial support to the
Government, as required,” Fall said.
On Cameroon, the UN official
raised concern over continuing reports of alleged human rights violations and
called on the Government to speed up its efforts towards decentralisation as
well as promotion of bilingualism and multiculturalism, as tensions between
French and English-speaking communities continue.
Cameroon’s Anglophone regions the
country’s northwest and southwest regions – have seen multiple strikes and
demonstrations over the past year as tensions mounted over what the country’s
English-speakers see as discrimination against them in favour of the majority
French-speaking population.
Fall urged nations in Central
Africa to “remain committed” to institutional reform at the Economic Community
of Central African States (ECCAS), particularly with regard to funding
mechanisms to ensure the effective implementation of key projects in the areas
of peace, security and governance”.
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