UN General Assembly
2003

United Nations in relation to the new challenges of this millennium. We are in urgent need of an integrated system capable of dealing effectively with the major threats to international stability at the outset of this twenty-first century, specifically terrorism and international organized crime; weapons of mass destruction; internal conflicts, which, unfortunately, continue to plague the African continent in particular; generalized poverty; and HIV/AIDS. Terrorism is today the most direct threat to the security of our countries, as can be seen from the attacks that in the past two years have killed thousands of civilians in the United States, Russia, Africa and Asia. With regard to armed conflicts, the situation continues to require urgent attention. During the last decade, approximately one third of African States were either directly or indirectly affected by internal conflicts, which resulted in costs as high as $15 billion a year, and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, massive displacements of people, famine and malnutrition, and the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The prevalence of conflicts in Africa is not only