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VIDEO: I support permanent African presence on UN security council, says Theresa May

BY Mayowa Tijani

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Theresa May, prime minister of the United Kingdom, says she supports a permanent African presence on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The prime minister made this revelation in Cape Town, South Africa on Tuesday, stating that the security of Africa is linked to the security of the United Kingdom.

Permanent members of the UN security council are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The UNSC also has 10 non-permanent members, who rotate the membership every two years.

With two countries from Europe, one from Asia, one from the Americas, and one from EuroAsia, there have been calls to have an African country sit permanently on the security council — with no success.

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The prime minister, who is renewing this call said: “In 2018, Africa and British security are inextricably linked and mutually dependent. That is one of the reasons why I continue to support cause for a permanent African presence on the UN security council”.

May also said Africa is home to a majority of the world’s fragile states, and a quarter of the world’s displaced people.

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She added that Africa has the highest number of poor people in the world, stating that 87 million Nigerians were living below the poverty line of $1 and 90 cents per day — making the continents biggest economy home to the highest number of “very poor people” in the world.

Theresa May arrives Nigeria on Wednesday.

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