UN Assistant Secretary-General for Information and Communication Technology recommends the Government of Maputo to equip the team with people with a lot of multilateral experience.

When on January 1, 2023 Mozambique takes over as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the country will be able to promote a UN resolution specifically for the situation in Cabo Delgado, a province plagued by terrorist attacks since October 5, 2017, and request the creation of a peacekeeping force, not only for that province but also for other African countries afflicted by terrorism.

This is the opinion of Bernardo Mariano Júnior, a Mozambican who has been the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Information and Communication Technology at the UN headquarters in New York for the past year.

In an interview to VOA, Mariano Júnior says that the election was a historic milestone and that the government should act intelligently when it takes its seat in that body, starting with the creation of a team that is highly professional and that studies and approaches the issues with great care and astuteness.

"The characteristics of the people who have to support Mozambique are people who have worked in an embassy that has multilateral affairs, such as ambassadors who have been in embassies in Brussels, for example, in Switzerland, in New York, who have had experience in a multilateral context. People who have been in non-governmental entities that have this multilateral discussion, such as, for example, the World Bank, which are institutions that deal a lot in the multilateral system and also have that bilateral part," argues the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Information and Communication Technology, for whom "these people with this kind of experience are people who can bring an added value to any decision that Mozambique takes within the Security Council on all issues that come to the table."

Mozambique may use its seat to influence the organization to pass a resolution to deploy a peacekeeping force to Cabo Delgado province, plagued since 2017 by terrorist attacks according to Bernardo Mariano Júnior.

"Right now, you have the support of the United Nations in the humanitarian part, you have the support of the United Nations in terms of reconstruction and social and humanitarian support in the region, but the military actors in Cabo Delgado are actors that are associated with a multilateral or bilateral relationship of Mozambique of the various countries that are supporting... ...but later you can say: no, this is going to be an African Union force, a United Nations force that already has another type of support and sustainability," explains that professional, advocating that the Government can now gather support and many countries in that sense.

Similarly, Mozambique may also request the creation of peacekeeping forces for other African countries afflicted by terrorism.

Bernardo Mariano Júnior insists that it is important that everything is done so that the conflict in Cabo Delgado ends as soon as possible and warns that if the military operation takes too long, it can tire the international community.

In his opinion, the Mozambican authorities should stipulate deadlines, and they should be reasonable deadlines.

"Mozambique has to look at this problem of terrorism as a priority to be fought, and using this support that it has. Because I would say that, if five years from now, we continue with the same problem that we have today, in the same situations, without progress, there will be a fatigue center of those who are supporting us. So we have to avoid reaching that stage", concludes the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Information and Communication Technology.

He has worked in the United Nations system for 29 years, 25 of those in the International Organization for Migration and about four in the World Health Organization.

The attacks carried out by groups associated with the Islamic State have killed, according to the Ministry of National Defense, about 2,400 terrorists and caused the forced displacement of more than 800,000 people.