At U.N., leaders link debt, climate to unity in fighting counterterrorism

Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi appealed for greater international cooperation to fight terrorism, particularly in Africa where he described the crisis-hit Sahel region as "a new epicenter of terrorist attacks."

At a high-level U.N. Security Council debate on Tuesday, Nyusi emphasized the "over-indebtedness" of poor and developing nations such as those in the Sahel extending across Africa between the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

In the Sahel, five countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – created a task force for counterterrorism in 2017, but Mali withdrew last year. Other countries in the Sahel are Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan.

"The situation makes these countries increasingly vulnerable to extremism, terrorism and violent conflicts," he said. "We call on the international community to restructure the debt. The international system needs to be reformed by transforming multilateral insitutions."

Addressing the council at the United Nations' global headquarters in New York, Swiss President Alain Berset raised the issue of climate change – specifically "climate-related hardships and recruitments" of combatants into terrorist and violent extremist groups.

"All of these problems are linked and they feed into each other," Berset told the 15-nation council, the world body's most powerful arm, where Mozambique and Switzerland were elected to two-year seats through 2024. "The response must be comprehensive, but it must be holistic."

Nyusi, whose nation holds the council's monthly revolving presidency, hosted the discussion on how to strengthen efforts between the United Nations and regional organizations at curbing terrorism and violent extremism.

It also looked at opportunities for engagements under Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, which provides a legal basis for regional organizations to help with international peace and security – the council's main responsibility.

Mozambique has been battling an insurgency by an affiliate of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, in a northern province, where the government deployed a regional force that includes thousands of soldiers from eight nations.

Comoros' President Azali Assoumani, chair of the African Union, said terrorism has "really exploded and particularly in Africa" since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that deposed and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi, splitting Libya between rival governments and militias vying for power and oil. That drew thousands of foreign fighters and combatants – and plenty of weapons.

“In this way, progressively, terrorism took on greater and greater scope in Africa – from north to south, from east to west," said Assoumani, who expressed support for the A.U. initiative to "silence the guns" by 2030. "And the terrorist contagion continues, broadening in almost all regions of Africa."

Tension over who pays

As with many issues, a primary underlying tension revolves around sustainable spending.

The council's debates over fighting counterterrorism in Africa often take a look at how to pay for those efforts through U.N. funding – and ways to increase those contributions. The U.N. has considered creating new offices to provide support.

The U.N. and the African Union created a technical working group on preventing violent extremism and countering terrorism. The A.U. and select groups of nations also have resorted to a regional approach, including the creation of multinational joint task forces, in fighting terrorism and extremist violence.

Beyond Africa's borders, however, the entire "international order is under threat as a result of the destabilizing attacks of terrorist groups all over the world," Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo told the council.

But Ghana is "gravely concerned" that Africa may be turning into "an arena for violent extremism and terrorism," he said, and there is an "urgent need for a collective response" since no country, regardless of its power, is immune.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the United States' "commitment to peace and security across Africa is unwavering," having spent nearly US$8 billion in "security sector assistance" there since Oct. 2018.

"Effective counterterrorism measures and the protection of human rights are not conflicting goals, but complementary and mutually enforcing," she said. "Let us unlock the full potential of the U.N. and of the African continent as we work to build a more peaceful and secure future for all."

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Africa's plight is particularly worrisome as terrorists make inroads in the Sahel and other areas. "Despair, poverty, hunger, lack of basic services, unemployment and unconstitutional changes in government continue to lay fertile ground for the creeping expansion of terrorist groups to infect new parts of the continent," he said.

"The trail of terror is widening," said Guterres, "with fighters, funds, and weapons increasingly flowing between regions and across the continent — and with new alliances being forged with organized crime and piracy groups. And the online world provides a global platform to spread violent ideologies even further."

The solution? Unity, Guterres advised. "Just as terrorism drives people apart, countering it can bring countries together," he said. "We see this across Africa, which is home to a number of regional counter-terrorism initiatives. From joint efforts in the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin, Mozambique and beyond."

This story has been updated with additional details.