Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism – While the number of deaths from terrorism has declined, the overall threat is far from over, particularly in Africa, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in New York on Wednesday.
Mr. Guterres was addressing the latest meeting of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, which brings together more than 40 UN agencies, Member States and other partners.
The terrorism threat to Africa is increasing, he told participants.
Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 48 per cent of deaths attributed to terrorist groups globally last year.
“Groups like Al-Qaida, Da’esh and their affiliates are continuing to grow in the Sahel and make inroads into Central and Southern Africa. They are exploiting power vacuums, longstanding inter-ethnic strife, internal weaknesses and state fragilities,” he said.
In conflict-affected countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya and Somalia, terrorism has intensified cycles of violence, fuelling further instability, undermining peace efforts, and setting back development goals.
