The Security Council held on 16 December 2019 an open meeting on the shared causes of intercommunal violence and preventing violent extremism in West Africa. 

Briefing Council members by videolink, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said that the region has been shaken by unprecedented violence in recent months, pointing to examples such as last week’s horrific attack against the Inates military camp in Niger. Such incidents, he said, show how terrorism, organized crime and intercommunal violence can easily intertwine.

Read the full statement of Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).