Violence and insecurity in the Great Lakes region and the Lake Chad Basin of central Africa are on the rise, the senior United Nations (UN) staffer in the region warns.
Abdou Abarry, Head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), told a Security Council meeting called to “examine” threats facing the wider region it “remains rich in potential, but challenges are still significant”. Seven countries – Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo – make up central Africa.
Around Lake Chad, groups affiliated to Boko Haram extremists and other armed insurgencies demonstrated “their resilience and their ability to adapt and respond to co-ordinated operations of [regional] defence and security forces,” Abarry told the UNSC. He gave one example when unmanned aerial vehicles carrying explosives killed “at least 19 Cameroonian soldiers in southern Nigeria” in March.
At the same time, according to him growing tensions between DRC and Rwanda led to large scale displacement in the eastern DRC, where the humanitarian crisis is further compounded by conflict in neighbouring Sudan.
As budget cuts exacerbate ongoing humanitarian crises in the region, there is growing concern “the inaction of the international community could lead to a worsening of the humanitarian situation,” the UNOCA Head told ambassadors.
On the positive side Abarry noted some countries, naming Chad and Gabon, made progress on the political front. He urged the newly elected authorities in these countries to “capitalise on this momentum to implement key democratic reforms”.
UNSC members heard online disinformation and hate speech are on the increase in Cameroon. UNOCA reports 65% of political content shared on social media between January and April this year was either false or previously manipulated.
The same four-month period saw a surge in intercommunal violence in the southern and central regions of Cameroon. This trend, according to Abarry, underscores the importance of UNOCA’s work supporting development strategies to prevent conflict related to electoral processes.
