Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: Pakistan Wednesday called for reinforcing the ongoing African Union-UN partnership for resolving the numerous issues of peace and security in Africa, especially the institutional mechanisms aimed at conflict prevention, early warning and mediation.
In a written statement submitted to the United Nations Security Council which debated African issues, Ambassador Munir Akram said the coronavirus pandemic had accentuated the importance of preventive diplomacy, mediation and other means of peaceful resolution of disputes and conflicts in Africa.
“The root causes of conflict in Africa are complex and multi-dimensional, and include poverty and underdevelopment; internal struggles for scarce resources; external contests for natural resources; and foreign interventions designed to suppress the rights of peoples to determine their own political and economic destinies,” the Pakistani envoy said, noting the continent’s painful history of colonization had left behind numerous conflicts and disputes that continued to impact on its peace, stability and progress.
These challenges, he said, had been further exacerbated by an unequal global order that often prioritized profits over the common good. The coronavirus pandemic, he said, had also triggered the worst recession and disproportionately impacted the poorest countries, and had a devastating impact on Africa, especially those countries which suffered from existing structural vulnerabilities, with economic activity likely to decline by 3.3% resulting in the loss of USD 115 billion and pushing an estimated 40 million people on the continent into extreme poverty.
“Helping Africa recover from the debilitating impact of the pandemic will not only require international support for a robust vaccination programme that reaches across the continent, including the conflict zones, but also the provision of adequate fiscal space and additional liquidity to recover from the economic reversal,” Ambassador Akram said, adding it would also entail renewed efforts to sustain peacekeeping and peace-building efforts in the conflict-afflicted countries and regions.
Unfortunately, he said, low-incoming countries, especially in Africa, were lagging well behind in terms of vaccine access, despite the UN Secretary-General identifying vaccine equity as “the biggest moral test before the global community”.
“International support will also be needed to revamp the fragile health systems on the continent,” the Pakistani envoy said. Helping the African continent deal with the financial fallout of the pandemic, he said, was also a vital component of post-pandemic recovery strategy.
In this regard, he referred to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s five-point agenda of priority financial measures to help the developing countries overcome the impact of the pandemic, saying its implementation in context of Africa and other parts of the world would help foster recovery from the recession, and promote peace and development, including in Africa.
In addition, the Pakistani envoy said efforts must be also undertaken towards the implementation of Secretary-General’ s call for a global ceasefire in cooperation with the regional and sub-regional organizations.
