UN envoy calls for international support on West Africa, Sahel

A Chinese envoy to the United Nations on Tuesday called on the international community to support the maintenance of peace and stability in West Africa and the Sahel.

Since the beginning of this year, the situation in West Africa and the Sahel has been generally stable, and China appreciates those developments, Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, told a UN Security Council briefing on the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).

"The international community should encourage relevant parties to resolve their differences through dialogue and consultation (and) encourage the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) to continue to play a leading role, while respecting the sovereignty and ownership of the regional countries when providing constructive support," Dai said.

The international community should "continue to support countries in the region to enhance capacity in peacekeeping counterterrorism and maintaining stability and encourage them to strengthen security cooperation by jointly addressing cross-border security challenges, such as piracy and drug trafficking in the Gulf of Guinea," Dai said.

"It is necessary to adopt integrated policies to treat both the symptoms and the root causes and to tackle the problems at source," the envoy emphasized.

Under the current situation, "it is important to help relevant countries restore state authority, improve governance capacity (and) promote economic and social development", Dai said.

Providing security guarantees to people and allowing them to share the fruits of poverty-reduction and development will help fully counter the infiltration and influence of extremism and terrorism, said Dai.

At present, the coronavirus is still spreading in Africa; regional prevention and control work "must not relax", he noted.

The international community should provide more assistance in anti-pandemic supplies, medicines, technologies and funding and ensure vaccine accessibility and affordability, Dai said.

The envoy said that relevant developed countries should fulfill their international responsibilities, take pragmatic measures in debt relief and development assistance, support regional countries in accelerating industrialization and modernization and enhance Africa's capacity for development and innovation.

"Since the outbreak of the pandemic, China has been firmly standing with the countries in the region by actively sharing experience, providing much needed COVID-19 vaccines and anti-pandemic supplies in multiple shipments and supporting them to resume work and production," Dai said.

In May, China and African countries jointly launched the Initiative on Partnership for Africa's Development, he noted.

"China welcomes more countries and international organizations to join this initiative and form synergy in support of Africa's development," Dai said.