A Pressing Matter for the Press

By Sharanya Barwale (Del of Bellingcat)

The Committee begins with different delegates all blaming each other for the security problems in the Sahel region but then the USA urges the countries to come together and work together instead of throwing accusations around. The delegate of the USA blames the terrorist organisations for the kidnappings and unrest in the region. When the delegate of Russia begins to speak, a crisis update begins. Just as the UN Secretary was naming the governments and groups that are funding terrorist organisations a mysterious hooded man infiltrated the audience and stabbed the secretary general. Hence, he couldn't reveal the countries that were funding the terrorists. The only piece of information the assassin left behind was that the organiser of the attack sent their regards. After this, the one question coming to everyone's minds was why doesn't the UN, one of the most powerful and influential global organisations, have better security than this?

This update left all the delegates perplexed, wondering who the mysterious attacker could be? Beginning the open floor, the delegate of ISWAP says that he doesn't see it as a shame to fund terrorist organizations and Sudan says that extremist groups are still the primary threat and also criticizes the United States for repeated intervention in Libya. The delegate of Sudan believes that the USA treats “the world like their playground”doing anything they want, whenever they want.  Sudan also questioned whether the money donated by the US for counterterrorism was actually useful. Mali also added that the US wasn't great enough to fund nations anymore.

ISWAP argued that the global donations for counterterrorism were not effective. The delegate also mentioned the fact that they may know who the mysterious people are funding armed groups as they might be funding ISWAP too. At the end, nothing was confirmed and no evidence was presented. 

Mali heavily criticises Libya and says that Libya is “the mole”, they are incompetent and that the government funds terrorist organisations. The delegate of Mali also mentions that Libya’s government doesn't care about its people.

Meanwhile, France asked whether African nations should take more responsibility for their own border security rather than relying on foreign nations to help.

Several countries including Sudan were accusing the United States of America of funding extremist groups. Russia asks the US for their justification to fund these groups but the US responds by saying that they don't need to justify anything as they aren’t actually funding terrorists and that all the accusations are flying but there is no solid evidence for this .

As accusations and allies were made the US tried to bring everyone back to the main underlying issue, the secretary of the UN was killed  But Sudan said this was an excuse for the US to pause the accusations flying at them from all directions.

Debate reached its most intense part when the delegate of Libya publicly took responsibility for the assasination of the UN secretary general but this isn’t verified information. As the committee drew to a close, all delegates were on edge about what would happen tomorrow. It is sure to be a most engaging and intriguing session.