Uganda to use Security Council slot to front regional issues

UGANDA will use its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member at the United Nations Security Council to table regional security concerns, especially the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the longstanding Lords Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in Northern Uganda which has lately transformed from being one country’s concern to a regional problem. Announcing Uganda’s candidature on the UN body charged with the maintenance of international peace and security, Uganda’s Foreign Minister, Sam Kutesa, revealed to the media that Uganda’s two-year term will be used as an opportunity to address security concerns on plundering the region and also promote issues of regional integration especially those of the East African Community. “We will make peace and security in the region top priority during our term at the UN Security Council. We also intend to push the integration agenda in the region and the continent,” said Kutesa. He pointed out the longstanding DRC Conflict as the single most security worry facing the region at the moment as well the LRA rebels who have resumed attacks on communities in Eastern DRC and Southern Sudan, displacing thousands of people and adding more fragility to peace in the Great Lakes Region. DRC harbors FDLR rebels who were recently reported to have allied with Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and is also home to LRA Joseph Kony rebels who shunned a peace process, establishing a base in Garamba, North Eastern DRC. Uganda was this month elected a non-permanent member of the 15 members of the Security Council representing Eastern and Southern Africa, bagging 181 votes of the possible 192 votes from the members of the General Assembly. The Security Council which is the most influential UN body with unanimously binding decisions has 5 permanent members with none coming from Africa. They are the US, Great Britain, France, Russia and China. The African Union is planning to forward the outcomes of the 2005 Swaziland meeting known as the Ezulwini Consensus which calls for at least 2 permanent members on the Security Council from Africa and 5 regional non-permanent members ahead of the proposed UN Security Council Reforms. The reason being that 50 percent of the decisions and resolutions made by the Council directly affect Africa and concern Africa, hence the need to involve Africans more in its decision making process. Ends

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Uganda to use Security Council slot to front regional issues