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), stated that the Sahel is where the world's gravest concerns converge, including terrorism, coups, environmental collapse, poverty, and hunger. She noted that these crises land violently and disproportionately on women and girls. Over 1 million girls in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso are out of school due to terrorist threats. In Burkina Faso alone, abductions of women and girls rose by over 218 percent last year.
Bahous urged governments and regional bodies to ensure women's full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in transitional governments and peace efforts. She also called for at least 15 percent of violent extremism prevention funding to be invested in gender equality and for the rapid deployment of women protection advisers to monitor sexual violence trends.
Levinia Addae-Mensah, Executive Director of West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, echoed that the multi-layered insecurities confronting women in West Africa cannot be over-emphasized. She stressed the importance of women's participation as strategic leaders in peacebuilding efforts and called for a shift from protection-only to prosperity-based prevention by promoting women's economic empowerment.
Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), presented the Secretary-General's latest report, citing an increase in terrorist activity in Mali, Benin, Togo, and Nigeria. He highlighted the establishment of a joint defense force by the Alliance of Sahel States to address these threats.
The ongoing violence has worsened the humanitarian situation, with 12.8 million people projected to face acute food insecurity and 2.6 million children expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2025. Only 14 percent of funding for the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for the Sahel region has been received, emphasizing the need for resource mobilization.
During the discussion, delegates expressed concern about the human rights situation of women and girls, including abductions and sexual violence. They called for women's urgent access to justice and protection mechanisms and emphasized the importance of their participation in peace processes.
The Security Council also discussed the evolving security situation, with delegates highlighting the need for coordinated regional responses to dismantle transboundary terrorist networks. The representative of the Republic of Korea noted that the Sahel region accounted for 51 percent of global terrorism-related deaths in 2024, according to the 2025 Global Terrorism Index.
The United States delegate called for a coordinated response to terrorism that respects the rule of law and human rights, while the Russian Federation's representative expressed concern over the terrorists' use of modern communication means and drones.
The discussion underscored the need for a comprehensive approach to counter-terrorism, emphasizing that security and development are interconnected. Frances and China's representatives stressed the importance of supporting affected countries through governance and capacity-building initiatives.
In his capacity as the representative of Panama, Council President for August, he emphasized that military solutions alone are inadequate to counter extremism.