Sierra Leone’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Ambassador Ismael Koroma has called on the African Union Peace and Security Council to identify and hold major players responsible for the current upsurge of immigrants risking their lives to Europe and America.
Addressing the 576th African Union Peace and Security Council Meeting and Open Session on the theme ‘’ MIGRATION, PEACE AND SECURITY IN AFRICA’’ on Tuesday 16th February, 2016 at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa; Ambassador Koroma stated that the issues were multifaceted and extremely timely for practical discussion, as well as real and urgent actions to be followed by all players in order to address the growing humanitarian crisis caused by migration. He said the decision to migrate is of both voluntary and involuntarily as it is influenced by natural disaster and man-made problems such as armed conflicts.
The Sierra Leone Deputy Chief of Mission told the AU-PSC that it was no doubt that
the current rise of African immigrants to the West and other parts of Europe was
principally caused by armed conflicts. He suggested that in order to quickly address
the issue, there must be real and practical discussions and decisions on the root
causes of migration; stating that the majority of the victims were young people like
himself, who were supposed to lead the transformation agenda of the continent.
He proposed that one of the critical ways of addressing the problem was‘’ to identify
and holdaccountable those major players, including countries and institutions
who have played and continue to play a role in igniting conflicts on the
continent and ask them to play a leading role in addressing the consequences
of their actions’’.
Ambassador Koroma cited the Libyan crisis as a case study which has led to the
exodus of many Africans to migrate to Europe. He added that many people were of
the view that the crisis was engineered and sanctioned by powerful institutions and
countries who abandoned the crisis when the situation became worse than what they
ever wanted to cure.
