ANKARA

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged countries to prevent terror groups from exploiting fragilities caused by the novel coronavirus.

"Psycho-social, economic and political stresses associated with Covid-19 have risen dramatically," Guterres said at the opening of the virtual Counter-Terrorism week. "Terrorists must not be allowed to exploit those fissures and fragilities."

Noting that it is "too early" to fully assess the implications of the virus on terrorism, he stressed that terror groups such as ISIS/Daesh, al-Qaeda and their regional affiliates, including neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups, "seek to exploit divisions, local conflicts, governance failures and grievances to advance their objectives."

"Like the virus, terrorism does not respect national borders. It affects all nations and can only be defeated collectively. So we must harness the power of multilateralism to find practical solutions," he added.

The secretary also urged UN member states to strengthen information sharing to learn from the experiences of others in the pandemic security.

After originating in Wuhan, China last December, the coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions, according to a running tally of US-based Johns Hopkins University.

So far more than 11.5 million cases and nearly 535,500 fatalities have been recorded globally.