Security Council expresses support for UN West Africa office

The UN Security Council on Tuesday expressed broad support for the proposed establishment of a UN West Africa office with a view to taking an integrated approach to sub-regional problems, the UN News Service said. The challenges ahead in West Africa highlight the importance and the timely nature of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's decision to establish the office, to be located in Dakar, Senegal, the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahima Fall told the Council. The proposed office would be mandated to enhance links in UN work in the sub-region, liaise with and assist the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Mano River Union, which comprises Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It would also perform good offices and special assignments in the countries of the sub-region. Fall said that in the current West Africa initiative, the UN was embarking on a new approach to its actions in Africa in line with the greater trend towards regional political security and socio-economic integration at the sub-regional and regional levels. He explained that developments in the sub-region strongly signalled the need for the Council's continued engagement. "Clearly, the underlying tensions continued to be evident across national boundaries, fuelled by chronic maldevelopment and political crises," he said in a briefing to the Council on an Inter-Agency Mission to West Africa that was conducted on 6-27 March 2001. The mission had recommended that the international community consider the adoption of an integrated, global and regional approach in efforts to prevent and manage conflicts in West Africa. The countries it visited were Senegal, Nigeria, Togo, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Mali.