25 Jan Africa calls for permanent representation at UN Security Council

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has urged the UN Security Council to give Africa at least two permanent seats.

In the opening of a council meeting attended by officials representing ten African Union member states, Museveni said the 1.3 billion people on the African continent deserve representation on the Security Council.

Addressing the council, Museveni said: “The UN Security Council should have been and must be reformed. This is not a favour by anybody but a right of all peoples that inhabit the planet Earth.

“We demand our right for permanent representation on the UN Security Council. Africans and billions of Asians cannot be kept out of the UN Security Council by five member states that monopolise it now.”

He added that it was “obvious” that reforms will make the global body more inclusive.

Ministers gathering in Kampala come from ten countries, designated by the African Union as C-10, or the Committee of 10. They are from Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Congo-Brazzaville, Libya and Namibia. Ministers from the ten African Union member states have collectively, under the chairmanship of Sierra Leone, been collecting views from member states and other stakeholders around the world since 2015 in a bid to influence changes within the Council.

Currently, the only five permanent members of the UN Security Council are the US, China, Russia, France and Britain. The council’s ten other seats rotate among nonpermanent members who serve two-year terms. ​​​​​​​