UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The West Africa and the Sahel's UN envoy on Wednesday called on the governments to redouble their efforts in defining a concerted approach to prevent a further expansion of the terrorist threat in the region.
Speaking at the Security Council semi-annual briefing on West Africa and the Sahel, the special representative of UN secretary-general for the region Mohamed Ibn Chambas said that the region recently has witnessed an even more visible and significant rise in violent attacks directly related to violent extremism.
Chambas said that the security situation remains volatile in the entire Sahel, where escalating violence and insecurity have sparked an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, leaving a total of 5.1 million Burkinabe, Nigeriens and Malians in need.
According to Chambas, in Burkina Faso, a total of 226 security incidents contributed to an accelerated displacement from 47,000 in December 2018 up to 220,000 internally displaced people and more than 25,000 refugees in June 2019, representing an almost five-fold increase.
Chambas said the past six months has shown a rapid deterioration of the security situation in Burkina Faso.
While talking about the situation in the Lake Chad Basin, he said that attacks by Boko Haram splinter groups continue to threaten the peace and stability of the region.
In 2009, Boko Haram militants launched an insurgency with the goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria. Over 27,000 people were killed in the country's northeast as a result of the conflict, according to media reports.
As for now, Chambas said that although the first half of 2019 has recorded 30 suicide bombers, a 70 percent reduction compared to last year, recently Boko Haram fighters killed 23 soldiers in Dangdala and it was the deadliest attack to date on Chadian military.
