“In Afghanistan, there is a terrorist group with which dialogue is impossible, it is the Islamic State,” said Guterres.
“Its vision is so radical that there is no prospect of discussion.”
He underlined there was “insufficient” security deployment in the Sahel, and called for “more international solidarity” with the region.
A high-level donor conference will be held Tuesday for the Sahel region, where the years-long fighting, climate change and COVID-19 have plunged millions of people into hunger.
The UN has said it hopes the ministerial-level videoconference will mobilize $2.4 billion.
Guterres said the UN’s MINUSMA force in Mali had too limited a mandate to allow “an effective fight against the terrorist threat”.
Similarly, France’s Barkhane force of some 5,000 soldiers was “limited given the extent of the territory to be controlled”, he said.
As for the combined G5 Sahel regional force, it “lacks the means and capacity to respond to this gigantic security challenge,” said the UN secretary-general.
“The international response must be stronger,” he told the newspaper.
