UN’s Guterres calls for halting of fertile ground for terrorists, extremists

By Bongiwe Zwane -Maseko

Terrorism is an affront to humanity and threatens collective efforts to promote peace and security, protect human rights, provide humanitarian aid, and advance sustainable development.

This was said by the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres on Saturday in his message on International Day for the Prevention of Violent Extremism as and when conducive to terrorism. He said terrorism targets people of all ages, cultures, religions, and nationalities and further undermines the values that bind people together.

“We must be more vigilant than ever. Terrorist and violent extremist groups are finding fertile ground on the internet to spew their vicious venom. Neo-Nazi, white supremacist movements are becoming more dangerous by the day”, he said.

Guterres added that those groups now represent the number one internal security threat in several countries – and the fastest growing.

“We must act to confront the challenge through prevention, by addressing the underlying conditions that can lead to terrorism in the first place, through inclusion, by ensuring counter-terrorism strategies reflect a wide array of voices — especially minorities, women, and young people and by placing human rights at the core of all counter-terrorism policies,” he said.

The Secretary-General said today and every day, nations need to work together to build more peaceful, inclusive, and stable societies in which terror and violent extremism have no home.