Topic:
Country: Niger
Delegate Name: Stephen Wolf
DISEC – Niger – Wolf
Delegate: Stephan Wolf
School: Forest Hills Central
Country: Republique du Niger
Committee/Topic: DISEC: Improvised Explosive Devices
Improvised explosive devices are a symbol of a new kind of asymmetrical warfare. Without clear front lines and combatants with uniforms, munitions that cannot be easily regulated by governments pose a grave threat to the foundations of society. Niger has suffered many terrorist attacks from Boko Haram in our fight to develop. These weapons are often used to target civilians over troops so as to cause low morale which is truly despicable. The developed nations of the world have developed incredible counters to the threats of roadside IEDs and techniques to counter human based devices, yet these have not trickled down to less fortunate nations. In order for developing nations to stand any chance against this threat, it is of utter importance for this to change.
Niger has been engaged in combat against Boko Haram on a large scale since 2009 and along with our neighbor Nigeria, been subject to hundreds of bombings using IEDs as their primary weapons. The conflict is not in Niger’s favour and even with the help of Chadian troops, Boko Haram continues to advance and harass our populations with the assistance of their asymmetrical warfare based upon the improvised explosive devices. This conflict has led to Niger’s economy being on the brink of collapse and a shortage of important and basic resources in parts of our country. Our country can not realistically continue to exist at the rate this conflict is moving at. We require the assistance of the United Nations if the future of our nation and nations similar in circumstance continue down the road currently set. Africa has become a battleground of the world and with Boko Haram specifically targeting Western ideas inside our nations, it would only make sense for said Western nations to come to our aid.
We believe that the means to stop the prevalence of IEDs in nations is the assistance of United Nations peacekeepers akin to those deployed in Mali with the purpose of keeping stability and helping to set up checkpoints to prevent the transportation of IEDs across suffering nations. We also support the spread of military equipment used in conflicts such as Afghanistan and Iraq as military assistance towards nations still fighting insurgency due to the lack of need by nations such as the United States. Furthermore, military assistance via training and support towards the armed forces of smaller nations can assist the fight against non state actors. IEDs cannot be outright prevented, but if the groups who use them can be stymied, we can lessen the explicit damage they cause and return to developing instead of declining.
