Latest news with #Bahous
Japan Today
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
U.N officials: Terrorist activity is surging in Africa's Sahel, endangering women and girls
By EDITH M. LEDERER Terrorist activity is surging in Africa's volatile Sahel region, making life more difficult and dangerous for women and girls, senior U.N. officials said Thursday. Over the past decade, the arid region south of the Sahara Desert has been shaken by extremist uprisings and military coups. Three nations — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — are now ruled by military leaders who took power by force, pledging to provide more security to citizens. But the security situation has worsened. 'Terrorist activity has surged in scale, complexity and sophistication,' U.N. special representative Leonardo Santos Simão told the Security Council. He pointed to the use of drones and increasing collusion with organized criminals working across borders. Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, said no region is more affected by terrorism. 'Life for women and girls under terrorist control is one of erasure from public space," she said. In the three countries, more than 1 million girls are out of school because of the violence, and 60% of those girls have never set foot in a classroom, she said. This has contributed to the region's high rates of child marriage, according to Bahous. 'As violence displaces families and shutters markets, women's livelihoods vanish and household resilience collapses," she told the Security Council. And because of a drought, women and girls are walking longer distances to fetch water and firewood. 'Two-thirds report feeling unsafe on these journeys, in a region that already ranks among the highest globally for reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence," Bahous said. Long battered by jihadi violence, the Sahel region has seen a spike in deadly attacks mainly by the al-Qaida-linked JNIM group, which has overrun major cities and military bases. Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data showed that May was more deadly than the preceding eight months. In Niger, which recorded one of its deadliest months in June, fighters backed by the Islamic State group launched a major offensive across the Tillaberi and Dosso regions, killing more than 100 villagers, in a return to mass atrocities in rural areas. Ransom kidnappings targeting foreigners have also spiked in the country this year. Simão, who heads the U.N. Office for West Africa and the Sahel, cited ACLED data reporting over 400 terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger between April 1 and July 31, leading to 2,870 deaths. Young people are increasingly being recruited by violent extremist groups, and millions of people are fleeing across borders, he said. To confront the threat, Simão said Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have created a joint defense force, and broader regional efforts are also taking place. Bahous urged the international community not to abandon the Sahel and called for at least 15% of the funding to prevent violent extremism be allocated to help women and promote gender equality. —- Chinedu Asadu contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Winnipeg Free Press
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
UN officials: Terrorist activity is surging in Africa's Sahel, endangering women and girls
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Terrorist activity is surging in Africa's volatile Sahel region, making life more difficult and dangerous for women and girls, senior U.N. officials said Thursday. Over the past decade, the arid region south of the Sahara Desert has been shaken by extremist uprisings and military coups. Three nations — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — are now ruled by military leaders who took power by force, pledging to provide more security to citizens. But the security situation has worsened. 'Terrorist activity has surged in scale, complexity and sophistication,' U.N. special representative Leonardo Santos Simão told the Security Council. He pointed to the use of drones and increasing collusion with organized criminals working across borders. Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, said no region is more affected by terrorism. 'Life for women and girls under terrorist control is one of erasure from public space,' she said. In the three countries, more than 1 million girls are out of school because of the violence, and 60% of those girls have never set foot in a classroom, she said. This has contributed to the region's high rates of child marriage, according to Bahous. 'As violence displaces families and shutters markets, women's livelihoods vanish and household resilience collapses,' she told the Security Council. And because of a drought, women and girls are walking longer distances to fetch water and firewood. 'Two-thirds report feeling unsafe on these journeys, in a region that already ranks among the highest globally for reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence,' Bahous said. Long battered by jihadi violence, the Sahel region has seen a spike in deadly attacks mainly by the al-Qaida-linked JNIM group, which has overrun major cities and military bases. Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data showed that May was more deadly than the preceding eight months. In Niger, which recorded one of its deadliest months in June, fighters backed by the Islamic State group launched a major offensive across the Tillaberi and Dosso regions, killing more than 100 villagers, in a return to mass atrocities in rural areas. Ransom kidnappings targeting foreigners have also spiked in the country this year. Simão, who heads the U.N. Office for West Africa and the Sahel, cited ACLED data reporting over 400 terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger between April 1 and July 31, leading to 2,870 deaths. Young people are increasingly being recruited by violent extremist groups, and millions of people are fleeing across borders, he said. To confront the threat, Simão said Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have created a joint defense force, and broader regional efforts are also taking place. Bahous urged the international community not to abandon the Sahel and called for at least 15% of the funding to prevent violent extremism be allocated to help women and promote gender equality. —- Chinedu Asadu contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.
Arab News
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Saudi Vision 2030 is ‘the beginning of a very good story,' says head of UN Women
NEW YORK CITY: Vision 2030 has become a reality of empowerment for all women and girls in Saudi Arabia, according to Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women. She predicted that the rise of women and their role in the Kingdom in recent years is just the beginning — 'and the beginning of a very good story.' Bahous was speaking at a high-level event on the sidelines of the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, during which Abdulaziz Alwasil, the Kingdom's envoy to the UN and chairperson of the commission this year, outlined the transformative strides Saudi Arabia has taken to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women in various sectors. The event, titled 'From Vision to Reality: Saudi Arabia's Story of Women's Empowerment,' highlighted the policies and initiatives that have helped to propel the participation of women in the Kingdom's labor market, and promote their roles in diverse fields such as technology, innovation and renewable energy. 'We have seen the removal of employment restrictions, growing opportunities for female entrepreneurs, and the rise of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and leadership roles,' Bahous said. 'This is a shift not just about numbers but it is a shift about impact, and it is only the beginning of the story — and the beginning of a very good story.' The way forward, she continued, is clear: partnerships need to be strengthened, policies must be implemented and institutions should be reinforced. 'We need inclusive economies, gender-balanced leadership and data-driven solutions to track and sustain progress,' Bahous said. 'And we need to listen to young women, to grassroots leaders, to those driving change from the ground up.' The momentum in Saudi Arabia is undeniable, she added, and continues to build: 'The journey is going but it is not over. The path ahead demands more transformative action. It calls for more progress that is not just imagined by some, but lived by all.' Vision 2030 is Saudi Arabia's plan for national development and the diversification of its economy to reduce the reliance on oil.
Voice of America
09-03-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
Women's rights advocates warn UN to confront backlash against progress
Female activists raised their voices at the United Nations on Friday as they marked International Women's Day amid a global trend of backsliding on hard-won rights. "International Women's Day is a powerful moment, and this year, more than ever, the call of gender equality has never been more urgent, nor the obstacles in our way more apparent, but our determination has never been more unshakable," said Sima Bahous, executive director of U.N. Women. Bahous called on women everywhere to confront the backlash, emphasizing that their movement is powerful and growing. "Equality is not to be feared, but instead to be embraced," she said. "Because an equal world is a better world." Women in all parts of the world are facing challenges to their reproductive rights, personal safety, education, equal pay and political participation. This year marks the 30th anniversary of a women's conference in Beijing that recognized women's rights as human rights, producing an action platform that has helped drive policy and progress. The United Nations says more girls are in school and more women hold positions of power today than before, but they still face violence, discrimination and financial inequality. "We cannot stand by as progress is reversed," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the gathering. "We must fight back." At the current pace, he said, eradicating extreme poverty for women and girls will take 130 years. "The fight for gender equality is not just about fairness," Guterres emphasized. "It is about power — who gets a seat at the table and who is locked out." U.N. goodwill ambassador for Africa Jaha Dukureh endured female genital mutilation (FGM) as an infant. At age 15, she was forced into marriage with a much older man in her homeland, Gambia. Her organization, Safe Hands for Girls, works to end the practice of FGM and address the physical and psychological toll on its victims. Dukureh told the gathering that governments have a duty to invest in social protection and education for women and girls. "For all women and girls, economic independence is the foundation of freedom," she said. "A woman who can provide for herself can make choices. A girl who has an education can build her own future." Commission on the Status of Women On Monday, hundreds of women's advocates and activists will descend upon U.N. headquarters to hold their annual meeting known as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The 10-day gathering is dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the rights and empowerment of women. Sarah Hendriks, director of policy for U.N. Women, told reporters on Thursday that anti-women's rights actors are increasingly well-funded and coordinated. "Where they cannot roll back legal or policy gains altogether, they seek to either block or slow down their implementation," she said. Thirty years after Beijing, Hendriks said, progress is still too slow, too fragile, too uneven and not guaranteed. She said U.N. Women is proposing an action agenda to accelerate progress on the sustainable development goals, of which goal number five focuses on achieving gender equality. "It is our ambition that 2025 will be remembered as a pivotal year," she said. "That it will be remembered as a year that history looks back and says, 'This was the year that we refused to back down, that we held ground, that we refused to step back, that we indeed actually stood our ground.'" CSW is expected to approve a political declaration by consensus on the first day. Negotiations on the document have been going on for about two weeks. But how strong it will be and what will be missing from it — for instance, reproductive rights — remains to be seen.
