Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC open debate on combating terrorism in Africa

Photo: The Permanent Mission of Russia to the United Nations.

Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UN Security Council Open Debate on Combating Terrorism in Africa. Main points:

- The security situation on the African continent remains dire. We’ve witnessed a further increase in the activity of terrorist and criminal groups. Almost all regions of Africa are under threat. At the same time, international terrorist organizations are actively radicalizing the local population and inculcate extremist ideology through exploiting inter-ethnic and religious strife, social and economic problems and the weakness of the authorities. To finance their activities, terrorists use illegal mining, drug trafficking, arms and human trafficking. To this end, terrorists have established a nexus with organized crime.

- Swift expansion of international terrorism is something that began in African countries after the Western military aggression against Libya in 2011. At that time, under the pretext of the “responsibility to protect” concept, they disrupted Libyan statehood and economy. These tragic events created a breeding ground for enhancing and upscaling the terrorists' potential on the continent. Today, Western states are speechifying about the so-called conditions conducive to terrorism in Africa, hushing up the fact that their own illegal actions and their miscalculations are on the top of the list of those conditions.

- An important contribution to curbing terrorist threat is being made by African peacekeepers. At the turn of last year, the Security Council adopted a resolution to replace the African Union Transitional Mission in Somalia with a new African Union Support and Stabilization Mission (AUSSOM) in Somalia, but the adoption process was compounded by a struggle between those who no longer wanted to fund the African peacekeepers in Somalia and those who didn’t want to take on new financial commitments, not even through the African Union-UN partnership mechanism. As a consequence, the issue of AUSSOM funding in the first half of 2025 remains unresolved, despite the assertions made by Somalia's traditional donors and partners that they support Africans and their aspirations.

- Unfortunately, this is by no means the only example of hypocrisy and double standards. They are clearly evident in the Sahel, where Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and other States are combatting international terrorism almost single-handedly.

- Under the pretext of fighting terrorism, former colonial powers continue to impose their military presence in the region. And this presence is no longer welcomed by African countries, inter alia because the ineffectiveness of these so-called counter-terrorism operations by Western countries is more than obvious.

- The establishment of the Alliance of Sahel States (ASS) by Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in September 2023 is something that became a milestone in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel. One of the main goals hereby was crafting a new security and mutual assistance architecture in West Africa. A key objective of the ASS is to jointly combat organized crime and terrorist organizations operating in the Sahel-Saharan region, as well as to prevent and counter military and other threats to the territorial integrity and security of the three states.

- We welcome the decision to establish within the Alliance a “Joint Force” to co-ordinate efforts to combat terrorist groups. ASS servicemen are already successfully conducting joint raids against fighter strongholds. In addition to collective measures, the ASS countries are also taking individual measures to bolster the combat readiness of their own armed forces.

- Nevertheless, there are still countries seeking to undermine the progress that has been achieved so far. To this end, they are running unscrupulous campaigns geared to spread disinformation and vilify local authorities through media outlets they control. There are also other States that from time to time carry out deliberate actions to subvert peace and security on the continent. The Kiev regime stands out among them. Thus, the official representative of Ukraine’s intelligence, Andrey Yusov, and the Ukrainian ambassador to Senegal, Yuri Pivovarov, confirmed that the “Kiev regime” assisted in the attack on the Malian armed forces on the border with Algeria near Tinzahuaten in July 2024. I would like to stress that this attack was carried out by an al-Qaeda-affiliate group. The response from the Sahel states was swift to come – they decisively condemned Ukraine's support for international terrorism on the continent and severed diplomatic relations with it.

- According to Le Monde, French newspaper, insurgents acting in Mali were trained to operate drones and handle explosives by Ukrainian special services both on Ukrainian territory and on the territory of Mali in terrorist-controlled areas. This is yet another narrative that illustrates the terrorist nature of the Western-backed Kiev regime, which is acting at the behest of, under the supervision of and in close coordination with its NATO mentors, and having no scruples about using outright terrorist methods.

- Russia provided financial support for holding the High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting in Nigeria in April 2024. We are confident that the results achieved will contribute to enhancing the capacity of the States on the continent.

- Finally, my country is sending its best specialists as instructors to the UNOCT training center in Rabat. There, they train African law enforcement officers on methods of combating the financing of terrorism and investigating terrorist crimes.

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