Africa: Terrorist threat in the Sahel/ what if the United Nations abandoned diplomatic chatter and got down to serious business?
Before the United Nations Security Council, the alarm has been raised once again, in a bitter testament to repetition. Alexandre Zouev, Acting Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, described on Wednesday a “multipolar and increasingly complex” terrorist threat, emphasizing the “particularly urgent” situation in West Africa and the Sahel. While the diagnosis is accurate, it rings hollow in light of the continuously worsening situation on the ground, calling into question the real effectiveness of the internationally led response directed from New York.
The description provided by Mr. Zouev is indeed alarming. The Islamic State group and its affiliates “have continued to adapt and demonstrate resilience,” to “recruit foreign terrorist fighters,” and to “strengthen its use of new and emerging technologies.”
This constant adaptation by terrorist groups stands in stark contrast to the bureaucratic slowness and fragmentation of international responses.
Sahelian populations, caught between the violence of armed groups and military operations, are paying the highest price for this disconnect.
The real danger lies not only in the growth of the threat, but in the persistent failure to address its root causes.
The UN can no longer be satisfied with “sounding the alarm” while sheltering in a cycle of meetings and reports whose recommendations are seldom acted upon.
This approach has shown its limits. Honesty demands recognizing that current strategies, often focused on purely security-driven responses, are insufficient without massive and coordinated political and economic engagement.
Honest action requires naming the real problems: failing governance, the absence of state services across vast territories, the exploitation of community conflicts by terrorists, and the uninterrupted flow of weapons and funding.
It also demands putting an end to the sometimes harmful competition among international actors on the ground, which weakens the overall response.
It is urgent that the Security Council mandate an integrated, transparent, and accountable approach.
This entails direct, flexible, and non-bureaucratic support to regional forces, predictable funding for development and state consolidation in border areas, and an independent mechanism to monitor commitments made.
Lofty speeches must give way to a coalition of action, in which every actor, under UN leadership, assumes its responsibilities with a clarity and determination that have so far been lacking.
The time for talk is over; the time for honest and effective action must finally begin, before the fire consumes the entire region.
Titi KEITA
