Global Security Newswire

A number of African nations are expected to participate today through Thursday in a U.N. conference in Cairo, Egypt, on halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations (see GSN, Oct. 2).

The workshop is aimed at strengthening implementation of the 2004 U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, which requires countries to work to stop nonstate entities from acquiring chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons. Conference attendees hope to improve participating nations' export-control protocols, encourage a dialogue on lessons learned, and to guide and channel support provided for under the resolution, the U.N. Security Council said in a press release.

Invitees to the conference include the the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. A number of international, regional and subregional groups have also been asked to attend.

The conference was put together by the U.N. Disarmament Affairs Office and received financing from the European Union, Norway and the United States. It is the fifth regional conference to address operations under Resolution 1540 (U.N. Security Council release, Dec. 3).