UN official warns insecurity in West Africa 'compounds an already dire humanitarian situation'

The UN said Thursday that mounting insecurity in West Africa and the Sahel continues to deepen humanitarian needs across the region, as terror recruitment and instability escalate.

"The security situation in the region remains of paramount concern," Leonardo Santos Simao, head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel, told the Security Council.

"Maritime security remains a concern and requires a coordinated response," he said. Young people are "increasingly prime targets for recruitment by terrorist and violent extremist groups."

Stressing that "growing insecurity compounds an already dire humanitarian situation," Simao cited the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and reported "12.8 million people are projected to face acute food insecurity."

He said member states of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) -- Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger -- have set up a defense force and established structures for cooperation on defense, diplomacy and development.

But he stressed that "women remain under-represented in peace processes, political parties, and security institutions … the major stumbling block for the implementation of women's involvement in the governance processes."

UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous emphasized how violence, poverty and lack of education disproportionately affect women and girls in the Sahel.

"Women and girls of the Sahel bear the brunt: abduction, early forced marriage, genital mutilation, and lack of access to education or livelihoods," said Bahous.

Highlighting five overlapping crises affecting women and girls -- terrorism, poverty, food insecurity, declining international aid and shrinking civic space -- Bahous warned that life under terror control means "erasure from public space."

"Across the wider region, 60% of out-of-school girls have never set foot in a classroom," she said.

She urged the international community to act. "Let us stand with the women of the Sahel -- not out of charity, but in recognition of their power to shape a better future," she said.