Escalating Terrorism in West Africa and the Sahel Hits Women Hardest, Warn Security Council Speakers


New York: The security situation across the Sahel is deteriorating rapidly, threatening peace and security in West Africa’s coastal States and beyond, delegates warned the Security Council today, condemning the deliberate targeting and exploitation of women and girls caught in the crossfire. The Sahel is where the world’s gravest concerns converge—terrorism, coups, environmental collapse, poverty, hunger, dwindling development financing, shrinking humanitarian access, and a declining UN presence on the ground, said Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).



According to EMM, these crises land—specifically, violently and disproportionately—on the bodies and futures of women and girls. Noting that over 1 million girls in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso are out of school because of terrorist attacks or threats, Bahous emphasized that abduction is not a by-product of terrorism in the Sahel, it is a tactic. In Burkina Faso alone, the number of women and girls abducted rose by over 218 percent last year.



Turning to solutions, Bahous urged governments and regional bodies to ensure women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in transitional governments and peace and security efforts. She further asserted that at least 15 percent of violent extremism prevention funding should be invested in gender equality and to support the rapid deployment of women protection advisers to the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) to monitor sexual violence trends and engage with parties to conflict.



The multi-layered insecurities facing women in West Africa are profound, echoed Levinia Addae-Mensah, Executive Director of West Africa Network for Peacebuilding. She underscored that women are not just victims but exhibit tremendous capacity to foster change. Her organization’s work continues to reveal extraordinary resilience and leadership by women in building peace, particularly in the Sahel, where women’s social networks are on the frontlines of peacebuilding, mediating local conflicts, leading trauma healing initiatives, organizing humanitarian responses, and operating early warning networks.



While frameworks and National Action Plans exist, their translation into sustainable transformation remains weak. Addae-Mensah noted that women’s participation is often viewed as an add-on rather than a strategic imperative, contributing to chronic underfunding. She stressed that the UN peacebuilding architecture must emphasize the central role of women as equal and strategic leaders, and local women-led initiatives must be able to access resources directly. She called for a shift from protection-only to prosperity-based prevention by promoting women’s economic empowerment and prioritizing land rights, access to finance, vocational training, and entrepreneurship during transitions and post-conflict recovery periods.



The women, peace, and security agenda is not just about a UN resolution, she stressed, but also about the lives and futures of millions of women and girls across West Africa.



Offering a glimpse into the complex security landscape across the region, Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNOWAS, presented the Secretary-General’s latest report on the Office’s activities. Citing terrorist activity in Mali, Benin, Togo, and Nigeria, he noted its surge in scale, complexity, and sophistication, including through the use of drones, alternative internet communication, and increasing collusion with transnational organized crime. He cautioned that young people are increasingly becoming prime targets for recruitment by terrorist and violent extremist groups.



To counter these threats, Simão highlighted that the member States of the Alliance of Sahel States—Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—have established a joint defense force and common structures covering defense and security, diplomacy, and development. He welcomed the Alliance’s establishment of a Criminal Court in Bamako to address war crimes, serious human rights violations, terrorism, and crimes against humanity—a step that underscores a commitment to justice and peace.



Growing insecurity compounds an already dire humanitarian situation, Simão emphasized, adding that 12.8 million people are projected to face acute food insecurity and 2.6 million children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2025. However, only 14 percent of funding for the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for the Sahel region has been received, he said, urging resource mobilization to save the lives of millions of people at risk.



In the ensuing discussion, delegates expressed concern about the horrific human rights situation of women and girls across the region—including abductions, sexual slavery, forced marriage, and rape. The violence must stop, and women must urgently receive access to justice, protection mechanisms, life-saving services, healthcare, and psychosocial support, stated Denmark’s delegate. She stressed that enhancing protection is not enough, urging women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation across electoral and peace processes—and in every single aspect of life.



At a time when the threat of terrorism and violent extremism continues to deepen and spill over into the Gulf of Guinea, Mauritania, and Senegal, the leadership of women and girls is more essential than ever, concurred Slovenia’s representative. She emphasized that sexual and gender-based violence is not incidental but systematic.



Sierra Leone’s delegate, also speaking for Algeria, Guyana, and Somalia, voiced concern over the evolving security situation in the region, citing an unprecedented surge in terrorist and extremist violence by the so-called Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). The growing threat of famine, climate shocks, and the sustained high numbers of internally displaced persons and refugees demand urgent and coordinated action, he continued. In this context, he welcomed the Secretary-General’s approval of the $7 million cross-border initiative to strengthen water management, climate resilience, and peacebuilding in the border areas of Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal.



Pakistan’s delegate underscored the need for a multidimensional approach to countering terrorism and violent extremism, focusing not only on kinetic actions but on the underlying root causes. He welcomed recent efforts by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union to expedite counter-terrorism coordination mechanisms and encouraged continued support for African-led solutions.



Adding to that, the speaker for the Republic of Korea said that, according to the 2025 Global Terrorism Index, the Sahel region accounted for 51 percent of global terrorism-related deaths in 2024. Urging coordinated regional responses to dismantle transboundary terrorist networks, he welcomed the renewed commitment of regional leaders to enhance cooperation between ECOWAS and the Alliance of Sahel States.



Greece’s delegate observed that violent extremist groups continue to destabilize vast areas—threatening land borders and vital maritime routes in the Gulf of Guinea. While piracy incidents in the Gulf have fallen significantly, largely due to the Yaoundé Architecture and enhanced naval coordination, the threat is evolving, with the potential to exploit maritime routes to finance their operations, he observed.



The United States delegate urged Sahelian States and their coastal West African neighbors to set aside differences and seek a coordinated response to terrorism that respects the rule of law and human rights, including military cooperation and intelligence sharing—as terrorists don’t respect borders. Citing the crisis unfolding in Sudan, with its far-reaching impacts on peace and security in the Sahel, she called on the belligerents to immediately end their violence.



For his part, the Russian Federation’s representative expressed concern over terrorists’ use of modern means of communication and drones. Determining who exactly is getting such resources into the hands of these terrorist groups is crucial, he asserted, citing confirmed cases of Ukraine’s support for terrorism in Mali.



Emphasizing the disastrous humanitarian consequences of crises in the Sahel, France’s delegate noted that counter-terrorism efforts must be grounded in a comprehensive approach—including upholding fundamental rights and freedoms, strengthening the rule of law, and fighting disinformation and extremist content—with UNOWAS playing an important role.



China’s representative echoed the call for a balanced strategy, stating: Security and development are two wings of one body. He stressed that development reinforces security, while security is a prerequisite for development, and urged the international community to support affected countries by bolstering national governance and capacity-building initiatives.



In his national capacity, the representative of Panama, Council President for August, emphasized that solely military solutions are not only inadequate and insufficient to counter extremism but ultimately counterproductive.