Security Council Considers Peace, Security Issues Affecting Africa in Advance of Upcoming Missions to Continent

In a matter of days, two Security Council missions would be departing for Central and West Africa with a powerful message that the Council remained actively engaged on all issues plaguing the subregions, that body heard today as it met to review the United Nations' involvement in Africa. More than 30 speakers hailed today's meeting as helping to forge the right context for peace. The discussion ended a month in which the dire situation in the interior region of the continent had commanded much of the Council's attention. It had taken several actions, including earlier today, when it authorized the establishment of an Interim Emergency Multinational Force in the town of Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, to quell the fierce inter-ethnic fighting there.
Jeremy Greenstock, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, addresses the Council.