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STORY: UN / WEST AFRICA SAHEL
TRT: 03:41
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 07 AUGUST 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
07 AUGUST 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council, UNOWAS Special Representative Leonardo Santos Simão on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS):
“Terrorist activity has surged in scale, complexity and sophistication, including through the use of drones, alternative internet communication, and increasing collusion with transnational organized crime. Maritime security remains a concern and requires a coordinated response. Young people are increasingly prime targets for recruitment by terrorist and violent extremist groups. Growing insecurity compounds an already dire humanitarian situation.”
4. Wide shot, Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS):
“Only 14 percent of funding for the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for the Sahel region has been received. Resource mobilization is urgently needed to save the lives of millions of people at risk.”
6. Wide shot, UN Women Executive Director Sima Sami Bahous addressing Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director, UN Women:
“I call on you to urge governments and regional bodies to ensure women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in transitional governments and peace and security efforts; implement affirmative action laws, and ensure a safe, open space for civil society; invest at least 15 percent of violent extremism prevention funding in gender equality, and ask for engendered updates from sanctions and counterterrorism bodies; support the rapid deployment of Women Protection Advisors to UNOWAS to monitor sexual violence trends, engage with parties to conflict, and secure time-bound commitments; and, even in a challenging financial landscape, I urge international partners to provide direct, flexible, long-term funding to women-led and women’s rights organizations through mechanisms such as the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and the Peacebuilding Fund.”
8. Wide shot, end of Council session
9. Wide shot, ambassadors at the Council stakeout
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Eloy Alfaro, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Panama:
“This region is facing multiple interest acting challenges, the erosion of democratic governance and of the institutional regional architecture. Limited economic opportunity and water and food insecurity have led to persisting transnational crime and forced displacement. These issues, exacerbated by the growing threats of terrorism and the effects of climate change, pose urgent and significant threats to international peace and security, and disproportionately impact women and girls.”
11. Pan right, ambassadors walk away
12. Wide shot, Sierra Leone Ambassador Michael Imran Kanu at the Council stakeout
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Imran Kanu, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sierra Leone:
“We strongly condemn all acts of terrorism and expressed grave concern over the use of unmanned aerial systems and aircraft capabilities and improvised explosive devices to target civilians and civilian infrastructure. The deliberate targeting of children, the equipment and radicalization of youth, attacks on schools and healthcare facilities, and restrictions on humanitarian access have compounded human suffering. This gets further aggravated by ethnic and communal tensions, particularly between herders and farmers, and exacerbated by the adverse effects of climate change, which perpetuate cycles of violence.”
14. Pan right, Kanu walks away
The head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simão, today (7 Aug) told the Security Council that terrorist activity in the region “has surged in scale, complexity and sophistication, including through the use of drones, alternative internet communication, and increasing collusion with transnational organized crime,” and said this “growing insecurity compounds an already dire humanitarian situation.”
Simão said maritime security “remains a concern and requires a coordinated response,” and stressed that “young people are increasingly prime targets for recruitment by terrorist and violent extremist groups.”
He noted that “only 14 percent of funding for the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for the Sahel region has been received,” and said, “resource mobilization is urgently needed to save the lives of millions of people at risk.”
For her part, Sima Bahous, the Head of UN Women, called on Council members to urge governments and regional bodies to ensure women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in transitional governments and peace and security efforts.
She also called on Members “to urge governments and regional bodies to ensure women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in transitional governments and peace and security efforts; implement affirmative action laws, and ensure a safe, open space for civil society; invest at least 15 percent of violent extremism prevention funding in gender equality, and ask for engendered updates from sanctions and counterterrorism bodies; support the rapid deployment of Women Protection Advisors to UNOWAS to monitor sexual violence trends, engage with parties to conflict, and secure time-bound commitments; and, even in a challenging financial landscape, I urge international partners to provide direct, flexible, long-term funding to women-led and women’s rights organizations through mechanisms such as the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and the Peacebuilding Fund.”
Before the meeting, Panama’s Ambassador Eloy Alfaro, who is presiding the Council during the month of August, read a statement on behalf of the signatories of Shared Commitments on Women, Peace and Security (WPS).
He said, “this region is facing multiple interest acting challenges, the erosion of democratic governance and of the institutional regional architecture. Limited economic opportunity and water and food insecurity have led to persisting transnational crime and forced displacement. These issues, exacerbated by the growing threats of terrorism and the effects of climate change, pose urgent and significant threats to international peace and security, and disproportionately impact women and girls.”
Also speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sierra Leone’s Ambassador Michael Imran Kanu, speaking on behalf of the Permanent Representatives of ECOWAS on Combatting Terrorism through Regional Leadership and Multilateral Cooperation. Kanu said, “we strongly condemn all acts of terrorism and expressed grave concern over the use of unmanned aerial systems and aircraft capabilities and improvised explosive devices to target civilians and civilian infrastructure. The deliberate targeting of children, the equipment and radicalization of youth, attacks on schools and healthcare facilities, and restrictions on humanitarian access have compounded human suffering. This gets further aggravated by ethnic and communal tensions, particularly between herders and farmers, and exacerbated by the adverse effects of climate change, which perpetuate cycles of violence.”
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