UN committee calls for greater participation, cooperation

A UN security committee on Central Africa has called for the participation of women and children in future conferences as they are the main victims of armed conflicts in Africa's "most unstable" region. The five-day ministerial conference of the UN Standing Advisory Committee on security in Central Africa concluded on 30 August in the Central African Republic (CAR) capital, Bangui. It included representatives from member states of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) - namely, Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, and Sao Tome and Principe. The meeting was convened to examine the geopolitical and security situation of the sub-region with particular focus on Angola, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, DRC and the ongoing Chad-CAR border conflict. The committee also called for the ratification of a regional peace and security pact (known as COPAX), the organisation of joint manoeuvres to prepare troops for peacekeeping operations, and the intensification of cooperation among national security agencies to stop the illegal circulation of arms in the subregion. The UN envoy to CAR, Gen Lamine Cisse, drew participants' attention to the precarious security situation in the subregion. "Security question in CAR and in central Africa are very worrying," Cisse said during his opening remarks. "Central Africa is the most unstable and disadvantaged region in Africa," he added.