Morocco asked before the UN General Assembly that Africa be represented on the future UN Security Council by 2 permanent seats and 3 other non-permanent seats. This request comes to reinforce a requirement of the African countries which consider themselves wronged.
The reform of the Security Council for better inclusiveness and better representation of the reality of today’s world is a necessary thing. Seeing Africa as part of the Security Council with at least 2 permanent seats is neither illusory nor a whimsical request, it is legitimate.
How can 5 countries, 2 of which are located on the European continent, 2 in Asia and a representative for the American continent, represent everyone without Africa sitting there as a continent in its own right?
Russia, China, the United States, France and the United Kingdom can no longer replace independent Africa, the world’s second largest population, the second largest continent in the world after Asia, which has 2 seats, 3 times bigger than Europe which also has 2 seats.
It is in this perspective that Morocco is campaigning for Africa to have, like the other continents, 2 permanent seats to create a fair balance. On Thursday at the UN General Assembly, the kingdom called for Security Council reform to be done in this direction, stressing that the two seats should have veto power, like other members.
This demand to grant permanent seats to Africa is not new, but it is not homogenized. Some African countries are asking for “at least one seat” and some specify that it should go to the African Union.
But Morocco’s approach is not a cut-rate request since it demands an equal place with other continents with 2 permanent seats and 3 non-permanent ones in Africa. The Kingdom has also requested the allocation of a permanent seat to the Arab League.
It is also the same demand validated by the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) last December, when they adopted a resolution calling for two permanent seats for Africa.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has also positioned himself in favor of this cause within the framework of the reform of the executive body of the United Nations.
“I am deeply convinced that this is the greatest injustice that exists today in the Security Council”did he declare. “When the Security Council was formed, there were very few independent African countries. We therefore have today a Security Council which corresponds to a reality which is no longer that of today’s world”, reminded the Secretary General.
More recently, in February, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reiterated this claim at the opening of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa.
He felt that today, unlike in 1945, Africa is at the center of major current issues in the world, such as “environmental conservation, deforestation and massive investments in the production of clean energy from hydro sources” opting for a seat on the UN Security Council.
The Senegalese President, Macky Sall, in September, as President of the African Union, had asked the UN General Assembly for a reform of the Security Council for a better representation of Africa.
During March, it would be the turn of the Gabonese President, Ali Bongo, to lead a meeting in Libreville around the question of the reform of the Security Council and the representation of African countries.