Mozambique begins its term of office as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last week, and the fight against terrorism is among the priorities on the agenda, according to an official source.
“We will deal a lot with terrorism,” said the Mozambican ambassador to the United Nations, Pedro Comissário, quoted by the organisation’s official media outlet, UN News.
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In addition to bringing the fight against terrorism to the UN Security Council table, according to the diplomat, Mozambique wants to raise the debate on the need to reform the body to include “African concerns”.
“It is necessary to pay attention to the reform of the Security Council to reflect African concerns, a region that has suffered a historical injustice. We have no permanent member in the Security Council,” he noted.
Mozambique was elected a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for 2023 and 2024 on 9 June.
This body, created to maintain international peace and security following the principles of the United Nations, has five permanent members – the United States of America, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China – and ten non-permanent members.
Each year, the General Assembly elects five of a total of ten non-permanent members, who, under the terms of a UN resolution, are distributed as follows: five African and Asian, one from Eastern Europe, two from Latin America, two from Western Europe and other states.
Mozambique’s election comes when the armed insurgency in Cabo Delgado province remains the main security challenge, with some attacks claimed by the extremist Islamic State.
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The insurgency, which has spanned the past five years, has led to a military response since July 2021 with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near gas projects, but new waves of attacks have emerged south of the region and in neighbouring Nampula province.
The conflict has left one million people displaced, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and about 4,000 dead, according to the conflict registration project ACLED.
