Mozambique: Country launches bid to represent Africa on UN Security Council – Lusa

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Mozambique: Country launches bid to represent Africa on UN Security Council – Lusa

3:09 CAT | 09 Jun 2022

File photo: Lusa

Mozambique is on Thursday to launch its bid to replace Kenya as Africa’s representative on the United Nations Security Council, as a non-permanent member of that body, the UN’s top decision-making panel.

Mozambique’s minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Verónica Macamo, expressed confidence that her country would be elected to the Security Council spot, arguing that its experience in the fight against terrorism would be an “advantage”.

She told Lusa that “friendly countries” had expressed their intentions to vote for Mozambique, including the five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US – which she said had offered her “training and practical support” for the purpose.

Five UN member states – Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland – are competing for the five available seats. Mozambique and Switzerland are among 62 states – 31.9% of the total membership – that have never been seated on the Security Council.

This year, Mozambique is the only candidate for the seat available to African countries.

Macamo said that in Mozambique’s favour is its experience in combating terrorism, particularly in Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country. That province is rich in natural gas but has been plagued since 2017 by armed rebels, with responsibility for some attacks claimed by the local affiliate of the extremist group Islamic State.

Among the issues Mozambique aims to put in the spotlight in the event of its election, in addition to terrorism, are peace and security guarantees, maritime piracy, trafficking in people, drugs and human organs, the use of technologies to empower countries and gender issues.

“We are also concerned about climate change,” said Macamo. “We have, as a Council, to find more effective ways to combat climate change, especially its effects. But we also have to look at biodiversity as a very important element to keep our world habitable.”

The UN Security Council is composed of 15 members, five of them permanent and 10 non-permanent.

The election will take place at the UN headquarters in New York.

Source: Lusa