Attachments
I. Introduction
1. The present report is submitted pursuant to the request contained in the statement of the President of the Security Council dated 11 June 2015 (S/PRST/2015/12), in which the Council requested me to keep it informed about the activities of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA). It provides an assessment of the major political and security trends in the Central African subregion since the previous report, dated 28 November 2016 (S/2016/996), and provides an update on progress in the implementation of the mandate of UNOCA and on efforts to implement the United Nations regional strategy to address the threat and impact of the activities of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) (see S/2012/481).
II. Major developments in the Central African subregion
A. Political, peace and security developments and trends
2. Tensions from disputed electoral processes continued to affect the subregion, mitigated in some cases by a ttempts to promote dialogue between governments and opposition groups. Economic and social challenges aggravated prevailing political grievances in several places. Despite regional efforts to counter Boko Haram, continuing violence has deepened a serious humanitarian crisis and development deficit in the Lake Chad basin region. During a visit from 2 to 7 March, the Security Council took stock of the situation and raised awareness of the crisis. The visit led to the adoption of resolution 2349 (2017) on 31 March 2017. Separately, national, regional and international efforts to combat LRA continued, along with efforts to reconfigure the African Union Regional Task Force, following the withdrawal of the forces of South Sudan, Uganda and the United States of America.
3. An economic downturn contributed to political and social tensions, provoking strikes in some countries over austerity measures and delayed salary payments. On 23 December 2016, an extraordinary summit of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), held in Yaoundé, focused on the economic and financial situation of member States adversely affected by the fall in the global prices of raw materials, especially oil. The summit adopted a series of economic resilience measures and decided to accelerate efforts to promote the free movement of people and goods. On 17 February 2017, the thirteenth ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, held in Djibloho, Equatorial Guinea, assessed the status of implementation of the reform programme on economic and financial affairs, launched at the Yaoundé summit, and discussed the free movement of persons.
4. The implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security, which seeks to ensure the effective participation of women in decision-making, remains a challenge in the subregion. Some positive developments have been observed, including the mobilization of women’s networks and the creation of a women’s regional platform on women, peace and security, but more work is clearly needed.
5. On 10 February, I appointed François Louncény Fall as my Special Representative for Central Africa and Head of UNOCA (see S/2017/137).