UNITED NATIONS, May 28: With the escalation in the Congo conflict, Pakistan has called for an open meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday to discuss the conflicts and issues confronting the African continent.

As Pakistan’s presidency of the world body’s most powerful organ ends this month, Pakistan’s ambassador Munir Akram has scheduled the wrap up session of the month to discuss Security Council missions and UN mechanism to promote peace and security in the continent.

In June two separate Security Council missions will be dispatched to Central Africa and West Africa.

The United Nations hopes that the two missions being sent to the continent should be a powerful signal to all parties to the conflicts in Africa that the council intends to remain actively engaged with the region.

In the open session the council will underscore the imperative of moving from “conflict management” to “prevention” and final resolution to prevent the resurgence of old conflicts.

It will explore ways and means to deepen engagement with African continent, specially focusing on how to deploy substantive material as well as political support to resolve conflict, particularly in support of the sub-regional and regional organizations.