The UAE envoy to the UN on Tuesday said terrorism was a “critical” threat to Mali and called for a comprehensive approach to tackling armed extremists in the turbulent West African country.
Addressing the Security Council, Lana Nusseibeh lauded the work of the G5 Sahel force, an anti-extremist alliance that includes units from the armies of Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania.
“Terrorist groups in the country continue to expand their presence and operations despite efforts to counter them,” Ms Nusseibeh told the 15-nation body in New York.
“We highlight the importance of a comprehensive and integrated approach to counter-terrorism that addresses its root causes and builds the resilience of Malians.”
Ms Nusseibeh also stressed the importance of bolstering law and order, economic development and tackling climate change in the region, which has been struck by drought and desertification.
"The UAE attaches great importance to addressing climate change, and its impact on international peace and security," said Ms Nusseibeh.
She also called for more aid programmes offering “food and water security”.
Mali has struggled to quell a brutal extremist insurgency that first emerged in the north of the country in 2012, before spreading to central regions and to nearby Burkina Faso and Niger.
Swathes of Mali’s vast territory lie beyond government control and the spreading insurgency and instability have claimed thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
UN experts say Africa became the region hardest hit by terrorism in the first half of 2021 as ISIS and other groups spread their influence, boasting gains in supporters and territory and inflicting casualties, including in the Sahel.
Mali's protracted crisis worsened this weekend, when West African leaders agreed to shutter their borders with Mali and impose a trade embargo over delayed elections in the junta-run country.
The UAE and four other nations joined the UN Security Council as two-year members on January 1. The Emirates says it wants to fight climate change and terrorism and get more women involved in UN peacekeeping missions.
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Volvo ES90 Specs
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