The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), hosted on 12 December 2025 an online event to launch a new initiative on “Enhancing Tourism Security against Terrorism Threats for West Africa”.
The session brought together representatives from Permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York, members of the Global Network of Experts on Vulnerable Targets Protection, and potential partners to explore ways to work together to strengthen tourism security against terrorist threats across West Africa.
The event provided an opportunity to identify national and regional needs and priorities, and presented the joint initiative, its framework, methodology, and expected outcomes. These include enhancing regional cooperation on tourism security, integrating safety, security and service standards, promoting public-private partnerships, delivering specialized training addressing countering terrorism in tourism contexts, reinforcing local engagement, and ensuring that human rights and gender considerations are mainstreamed at every stage
A highlight of the event was the Roundtable “Connecting Security, Tourism, and Development: The Importance of Protecting Tourism Sites against Terrorism in West Africa.” Moderated by a representative of the African Union Development Agency (NEPAD), the discussion featured experts from Benin, the Ivory Coast and Senegal. Their insights paved the way for an interactive Questions and Answers session, which underscored the concrete needs expressed by participating Member States and opportunities for future collaboration with the UN Global Programme on Countering Terrorist Threats against Vulnerable Targets, along with the existing projects of UNICRI and UN Tourism.
