West Africa recorded over 1,800 terrorist attack in first six months of 2023, regional official says

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — West Africa has recorded over 1,800 terrorist attacks in the first six months of the year resulting in nearly 4,600 deaths with dire humanitarian consequences. And a top regional official says that’s just “a snippet of the horrendous impact of insecurity.” Omar Touray told the U.N. Security Council Tuesday that half a million people in the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States known as ECOWAS are refugees and nearly 6.2 million are internally displaced. If there isn’t an adequate international response to the 30 million people ECOWAS assesses need food right now, he said, the number of people in need will increase to 42 million by the end of next month.