New York: The security situation across the Sahel is deteriorating rapidly, threatening peace and security in West Africa’s coastal states and beyond, delegates warned the Security Council today, condemning the deliberate targeting and exploitation of women and girls caught in the crossfire.
According to EMM, Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), highlighted the convergence of grave global concerns in the Sahel, including terrorism, coups, environmental collapse, poverty, and dwindling development financing. She emphasized the disproportionate impact of these crises on women and girls, noting that over 1 million girls in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso are out of school due to terrorist threats. Bahous stressed that abduction is a distinct tactic of terrorism in the Sahel, with Burkina Faso witnessing a 218% rise in abductions of women and girls last year.
Turning to solutions, Bahous urged governments and regional bodies to ensure women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in transitional governments and peace and security efforts. She advocated for allocating at least 15% of violent extremism prevention funding to gender equality initiatives and the deployment of women protection advisers to the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) to monitor sexual violence trends.
Levinia Addae-Mensah, Executive Director of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, echoed these sentiments, underscoring women’s capacity to foster change. She highlighted the extraordinary resilience and leadership exhibited by women in peacebuilding efforts across the Sahel, from mediating local conflicts to organizing humanitarian responses.
Addae-Mensah stressed the need for the UN peacebuilding architecture to emphasize women’s roles as strategic leaders and called for direct resource access for local women-led initiatives. She advocated for a shift from protection-only approaches to prosperity-based prevention, promoting women’s economic empowerment through land rights, access to finance, vocational training, and entrepreneurship.
Offering insights into the region’s complex security landscape, Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNOWAS, presented the Secretary-General’s latest report. He highlighted the surge in terrorist activity in Mali, Benin, Togo, and Nigeria, emphasizing the increasing sophistication of these threats, including the use of drones and alternative internet communication.
Simão noted the establishment of a joint defence force by the Alliance of Sahel States—Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—to counter these threats. He welcomed the establishment of a Criminal Court in Bamako to address war crimes and human rights violations, underscoring a commitment to justice and peace.
The discussion highlighted the horrific human rights situation faced by women and girls in the region, with delegates urging urgent action to provide justice, protection mechanisms, and essential services. Delegates from Denmark and Slovenia emphasized the need for women’s participation in electoral and peace processes, while Sierra Leone’s delegate called for coordinated action to address the growing threat of terrorism and its humanitarian impact.
In response to the volatile security situation, Pakistan’s delegate underscored the importance of addressing the root causes of terrorism, while the Republic of Korea’s speaker cited the 2025 Global Terrorism Index, noting the Sahel region’s significant share of global terrorism-related deaths. He urged coordinated regional responses to dismantle transboundary terrorist networks.
The discussion also addressed the security-development nexus, with delegates from France and China calling for comprehensive approaches that reinforce security and development. Panama’s representative, speaking in his national capacity, emphasized the inadequacy of solely military solutions, advocating for a balanced strategy that includes upholding fundamental rights and strengthening governance.