“Working together to establish lasting peace and security in this region of Central Africa”
18 mars 2023
Ambassador Gilberto Da Piedade Verissimo, President of the ECCAS Commission delivered a special speech at the opening ceremony of the Annual Meeting of Heads of United Nations Entities in Central Africa. It was this Thursday, March 16, 2023 in Libreville. We offer you the entire speech.
Madam Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Gabonese Republic;
Mr. Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the African Union;
Distinguished Envoys and Special Representatives of the Secretary-General of the United Nations;
Distinguished Regional Directors; Ladies and Gentlemen Resident Coordinators; Ladies and Gentlemen, in your ranks, titles and qualities;
Allow me to join my brother Abdou ABARRY in welcoming you to Libreville, headquarters of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), which is hosting your meetings today, but also the headquarters of the Economic Community Central African States (ECCAS).
I would also like to sincerely thank my brother Abdou for the extended invitation to the ECCAS Commission to take part in this ceremony, an expression of the excellent collaboration existing between our organization and UNOCA.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Heads of United Nations Entities in Central Africa;
Your meeting which begins today is being held almost 20 days only after the 22nd ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECCAS which took place in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on February 25, 2023.
While taking note of the actions undertaken by the Commission during the year 2022 and congratulating it for this purpose, the Assembly instructed the Commission
to continue the Community’s involvement in a number of urgent situations in the field of peace and security, namely:
The resolution of the dispute between Rwanda and the DRC;
The accompaniment of the Democratic Republic of Sao Tomé and
Principe following the unfortunate events of November 25, 2022;
Support for the ongoing transition process in the Republic of Chad;
Assessing the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and crises
on the political and security situation in the region;
Resolving the humanitarian crisis in Central Africa;
The revitalization of maritime security in Central Africa under the
sea-security-development paradigm; And
Community support for the lifting by the Council of
Security of the UN arms embargo against the Central African Republic.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Heads of United Nations Entities in Central Africa;
The ECCAS Commission considers that these actions in the management of the situations listed above will certainly be less effective without the valuable support of UNOCA and other United Nations agencies established in Central Africa, whose management is entrusted to you.
Indeed, when your annual meeting is held, the ECCAS area continues to face several security threats, including terrorism and the activism of armed groups and secessionist movements, exacerbated by the presence of combatants who lend their services across the borders of many States, the illicit circulation of weapons of all sizes and illicit exploitation of raw materials.
The process of linking the Multinational Force for Central Africa (FOMAC) to the fundamental texts resulting from the reform of ECCAS, i.e. its revitalization, with the renewal of the personnel of its General Staff and the implementation of the pending components in the Member States, as decided by the Conference of Heads of State and Government during the above-mentioned 22nd ordinary session, undoubtedly contribute to the will of the Member States to work towards the establishment of lasting peace and security in Central Africa.
The Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECCAS also approved the revised Protocol relating to the safety and security of vital interests at sea and in the continental waters shared by the Member States of ECCAS, guaranteeing an effective repression of crime in the aquatic areas of the region and the optimal exploitation of these through the development of a sustainable blue economy in Central Africa.
To the security challenges mentioned above, it is important to add those relating to hate speech and transhumance used for criminal purposes on which the ECCAS Commission will take a special look in this year 2023.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Heads of United Nations Entities in Central Africa;
The activities adopted within the framework of the implementation of the decisions of the Conference mentioned above are all included in the Priority Action Plan for the year 2023 of the ECCAS Commission adopted by the same conference.
This action plan also includes activities relating to the establishment of the Committee of Elders of ECCAS, the operationalization of the Network of Women Mediators of ECCAS, the operationalization of the Police and Judicial Cooperation Mechanism intended to facilitate the free movement of persons and goods, of the regional strategy for the prevention and fight against terrorism in Central Africa, as well as the adoption of additional protocols to the revised treaty establishing ECCAS relating to the Parliament, the Court of Justice and the ECCAS Community Court of Auditors.
Distinguished Envoys and Special Representatives of the Secretary-General of the United Nations;
Distinguished Regional Directors; Ladies and Gentlemen Resident Coordinators; Ladies and Gentlemen, in your ranks, titles and qualities;
It is on purpose that I have presented in more or less detail the main themes on which the activities of the ECCAS Commission will focus during the year 2023. The underlying objective of this approach is clearly facilitate the task of identifying areas of collaboration and creating synergies between your institutions and ECCAS.
We need to develop partnerships in these different areas in order to work together to establish lasting peace and security in this region of Central Africa.
In view of the human, material and financial cost of building peace and security after violent conflicts, our efforts must give priority to a crisis and conflict prevention approach.
These prevention efforts, if they have to meet the needs of so-called operational prevention, must not lose sight of those of structural prevention.
We must recognize that no structural prevention of conflicts in this region of Central Africa will be possible without the determined and shared concern to work towards the strengthening of human security and the continuous improvement of political, economic and political governance. and social affairs of the Member States of our Community. No one can doubt the expertise acquired and developed by United Nations agencies in these 5 areas.
And the ECCAS Commission can only wish to collaborate and develop more and more rich partnerships with your agencies in order to strengthen its own capacities to serve the peoples of this beautiful region of Central Africa whose peace and security are today shared concerns for ECCAS and the United Nations today.
This is why I cannot conclude my remarks without reiterating here the will of the ECCAS Commission to increase its collaboration and cooperation with the United Nations entities present in Central Africa, at the head of which is UNOCA.
While wishing you fruitful deliberations, I thank you for your kind attention.