A senior minister from Sierra Leone today stressed the importance of mediation and regional partnerships to preserve peace, urging the international body to reflect on reform measures that will uphold the United Nations’ collective responsibility to maintain peace.
Samura Kamara, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, called on the international community to “generate innovative ideas and credible mechanisms that will bring all conflicts to a peaceful end; promote social progress, peace and security, human rights and fundamental freedoms; and secure better standards of life for humanity.”
With a nod to the country’s decades-long civil war, Mr. Kamara said that Sierra Leone “learned from experience” that for mediation efforts are fruitful only if accompanied by a timely cessation of hostilities, credible cease-fire agreements, and the timely deployment of peacekeeping or observer missions, among others.