Sas-Can Rejects Reports That Are At Variance With The Supposed Character Of The United Nations

20 August, 2025

At a time when the global community is working on appropriate solutions to the thorny issue of Palestine, with its attendant unprecedented humanitarian disaster in Gaza, it is regrettable that once again, certain officials of the United Nations are pushing an agenda based on defaming the legitimate Government of Burkina Faso. There are reports of historic injustices and holocaust crime being unleashed on Gaza, on a daily basis, including killing men, women and children, elderly persons, disabled persons, youths, medics, journalists, humanitarian and healthcare workers as Israel seeks to occupy or annex more lands and territories from its neighbours.

It is estimated that 220 journalists have been brutally murdered in Palestine by Israeli forces since October 2023 and tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded in Gaza and other territories of Palestine. It is even sad to state that Israel’s policy of starvation of whole nations and whole regions has caused considerable harm to over a million Arab children in Palestine. This unending holocaust campaign has not pricked the conscience of the United Nations, which is still operating in the colonial era.

And for those Africans who have allowed themselves to be used against their parents, families, siblings and future generations of Africans will have their actions haunting them everywhere till they finally join their ancestors. This is because the harm they have inflicted on the continent would be judged as nothing but a fait accompli-what has been done cannot be undone-they cannot undo the pains and misery suffered by innocent people due to their acts of omission and commission.

Since its inception in 2023, the Sahel Solidarity Campaign Network (SaS-CaN) has been following events surrounding the Sahel nations of Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger. The latest been the deliberate attempt by the United Nations to add to the negative campaign against the Burkina Faso, its leadership and people, and to help instigate collective punishment for the Sahel region.

This latest event making the rounds in the media is one that surrounds the decision of the competent authorities in Ouagadougou to declare the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Burkina Faso, Carol Flore-Smereczniak persona non grata. This decision was taken to vent out the dissatisfaction of the Government of Burkina Faso to report submitted to the United Nations, which carries the same aggressive rhetoric with borrowed disinformation and misinformation from those who seek the destabilisation of the AES block.

In that report tiled: ‘Children and Armed Conflict in Burkina Faso’, the authorities in Ouagadougou believe the contents therein contained unsubstantiated, biased, untrue and hate-filled allegations that suggest serious abuses against children are being committed proxy Sahel conflict. The government of Burkina Faso believes also that the report contains no solid evidence or firm legal basis to support its extreme and unfounded allegations.

A thorough look at the report from its prologue to epilogue, it is clear that the whole exercise was a futile attempt to punish Burkina Faso for its recent successes in the ongoing war against terrorism and other transnational organised crimes on its soil. The report fails to meet the guidelines of the United Nations, and this deprived the exercise of its merit. It lacks also all credibility as it authors blatantly refused to mention the achievements of the Burkinabe army in the protection and consolidation of human rights against attacks by terrorist groups operating in the Sahel region. Unfortunately, these extreme terrorist groups were created in 2011, by France and its NATO allies, following the brutal murder of Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and deaths of over one and half million Africans killed by NATO and its fiercely armed local murderers.

Apart from its failure to mention the developmental strides and status of social, economic, cultural rights in the Sahel region, the report is at variance with the spirit and letter of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which accords equal importance to all rights. SaS-CaN holds the belief that the entire report like the previous one concocted by the New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW), is so well calculated and ignores a whole category of human rights achievements, because Burkina Faso’s record, for instance is impressive and sent shocking waves to its adversaries.

What is more glaring is the fact that nothing in the report reflects the facts on the ground which could have been easily verified by an independent body. The UN officials instead chose to rehears and advance the political agenda of a certain ethnic group that has nothing to do with the defence and promotion of human rights in the Sahel region.

It is disheartening to see the United Nations being used as a tool to target progressive African governments, particularly members-states of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), including Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger, spewing out unverified allegations, while sweeping away factual evidences of human rights violations in other parts of the world, say for instance in Libya, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. The UN actions in joining the vile campaign against, in particular, Burkina Faso is not a new invention on the African continent.

The decision of the competent authorities in Ouagadougou to declare United Nations Regional Coordinator Carol Flore-Smereczniak persona non grata over her role in the malicious report concocted against the Sahel nation, was meted with sympathy in the media. Since then the media has not relent in its malicious headlines, vilifying Burkina Faso. The truth of the matters is that, no sober government anywhere can let go free the actions of Ambassador Carol, and the decision of the competent authorities in Ouagadougou, against the UN diplomat should only be seen as a just response to unjust attacks.

Time and again, members-states of the AES have repeatedly made their position very clear that they did not create their alliance to humiliate or chastise or ciminalise anybody, let alone the United Nations or any of its Specialised Agencies. That the existence of the AES should be seen as an avenue to promote and defend United Nations Charter and cherished international principles. The AES condemns terrorism and all related heinous crime and crimes against humanity. The AES exists to promote peace, human rights, the rule of law and to strive for the development and prosperity of members-states and entire African continent and Africans in the diasporas.

What the AES wants and demands, is an end to the terrorism war initiated by France and its NATO allies against the people of the Sahel; an end to outside meddling mentality in its domestic affairs, an end to all politically-motivated actions and destabilisation policies on the African continent. In support of the position of the AES, SaS-CaN calls upon the United Nations to cease from being used as platform to wreck down development processes in Africa. What citizens of the Sahel region expect from the United Nations is the establishment of credible, unbiased, efficient and effective methods in advancing human rights worldwide-free from manipulation, hate-filled racism and undue geopolitical influences.

The experienced in Libya has ignited this call by Africans, for the United Nations to treat the African continent equally to others, and to engage in genuine cooperation with African nations in the defence and promotion of human rights, the rule of law and democratic good governance. Instead the world body has done more harm than good to Africa, and Africans. On this note, the world should see the UN report about Burkina Faso as a heap of insults on the African continent.

Again the report as presented to the United Nations, wittingly or unwittingly endorses the political agenda of a group of people professing to represent the interests of say for instance, the Fulani-speaking Africans in the region. It deliberately and totally ignores the aggressive rhetoric of those failed politicians and pawns, who continue to spread false alarm, misinformation and disinformation, issue indiscriminate insults and slander, incite violence and religious bigotry, and call for spurious actions, sanctions, isolation, economic blockade and assassination of targeted progressive leaders in Africa.

This seditious campaign against the Sahel region must stop, especially at a time now that the governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger are doing everything to fix the mess left behind by their predecessors. The AES operates with strict adherence and abide by UN Charter and international human rights and international humanitarian law obligations. More interestingly, this anti-Burkinabe UN report comes even at a time the AES is confronting a bitter terrorism war that was created by France and its NATO allies and imposed on the Sahel region. This terrorism war has subjected national independence, sovereignty and domestic self-rule and territorial integrity of the Sahel states into international public scorn or ridicule.

If for any credible report, the UN could have done so in good faith. However, the world body did more than simply trust the hearsay and gossips from fake activists, who have been hired and paid to spread false alarms, to lie and deceive the public, in order to advance a vicious agenda in the Sahel region. The AES leaders have vowed to take concrete measures to bring perpetrators of human rights violations in the Sahel region to Justice.

Having stated the above, the Sahel Solidarity Campaign Network (SaS-CaN) will not be deterred by any ill-intentioned report or malicious propaganda, but will continue working for peace and stability, and for the promotion and defence of human rights and democratic good governance in the Sahel region. We call on other African countries to copy the Sahel democratic good governance system, where citizens of all ages fully participate in the development processes. We call on the global community to reject the UN report about Burkina Faso and any attempt to advance the vicious agenda of extremist groups in the Sahel region.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Carol Flore-Smereczniak of Mauritius as the UN Resident Coordinator in Burkina Faso in July 2024. Her designation was accepted by the competent authorities in Ouagadougou, allowing Ambassador Carol Flore-Smereczniak to start work in the country on 19th July, 2024. She doubled also as the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Burkina Faso.

Until her recent appointment, Ms. Flore-Smereczniak was the UNDP Resident Representative in the Ivory Coast, where we believe she was schooled to become anti-Sahel diplomat.

In her earlier carrier at the UN, Ambassador Carol Flore-Smereczniak had worked as UNDP Resident Representative and UNDP Country Director in Chad, as UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Malawi and Papua New Guinea, as well as the Regional Sustainable Development Specialist at the UNDP Pacific Centre in Fiji. Her action in Burkina Faso are more or less centered on acting as a tool, espousing a neocolonial-driven agenda, which is too dangerous for the Sahel region.

Concluding, the Sahel Solidarity Campaign Network (SaS-CaN) would like to express its appreciation to those individuals that appreciate United Nations cherished principles. While appreciate all those countries that love Africa and treat Africans equally with dignity, we strongly condemn and categorically reject the UN flawed report, especially when such action was done without the participation of lawful representatives of Burkina Faso. We condemn also any aggressive rhetoric that is at variance with peace, stability, unity and development in the Sahel region.

© Scoop Media