BIMUN26 Day One - The Floor Is Open.

The tenth edition of the Babcock International Model United Nations opened Monday at Babcock University, with former Anambra State governor Peter Obi delivering a keynote address that framed leadership as service rather than spectacle.

The opening plenary began with a procession of the Secretariat and guest speakers, a call to order, a minute of silence and roll call. In her opening remarks, the President of the General Assembly anchored the conference on the principle of Ubuntu — “I am because you are” — before delegates began filling the Speakers’ List. Proceedings paused after Denmark’s address, as delegates voted to suspend the list for the keynote session. Babcock University’s Vice-Chancellor welcomed delegates, congratulated BIMUN on its tenth edition, and introduced Obi, who challenged delegates to see leadership as service, embrace competence, and take responsibility for shaping the future rather than waiting on others. The Speakers’ List was suspended until Wednesday’s closing plenary.

Committee sessions followed across two locations.

The Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC) spent the day split three ways over its agenda on enhancing multilateral responses to security threats posed by violent extremist organisations and transnational armed groups.

Blocs — the groupings that form during unmoderated caucus when countries find shared interests — circulated working papers that agreed on almost nothing except that borders are porous.

The Bloc of the Elite treated the problem as a gap in technology and enforcement, proposing biometric verification at border checkpoints, AI-assisted surveillance, tighter oversight of cryptocurrency transactions used to finance terrorism, and cooperation with technology companies to remove extremist content. Its proposals were hedged repeatedly with references to state sovereignty and data protection.

The Cooperative Bloc went further on state responsibility, calling for a legally binding instrument against the accommodation and financing of designated terrorist groups — the sharpest commitment proposed in the room — and noting that poverty and unemployment continue to be treated as secondary to military responses rather than addressed alongside them.

A third bloc located the problem socially, raising ethnic and religious division, the mishandling of firearms by minors, and digital radicalisation. It proposed public education against ethnocentrism, intelligence-sharing alliances, restricting weapons to military personnel, and improved pay for immigration officials to reduce corruption.

The session was suspended with each bloc instructed to prepare a draft resolution in view of the next meeting.

In the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM), Denmark set the terms early. Delegates of Egypt and Denmark raised competing motions on which agenda the committee would take first; Denmark's carried, opening proceedings on xenophobia as a political tool and the normalisation of anti-immigrant rhetoric for political gain.

The committee has since moved to its second agenda item, on displacement, civilian protection and human rights violations arising from the USA–Israel–Iran conflict. Two blocs formed after delegates failed to converge on a common position on the impact of xenophobia — divided not on which side they were on, but on how a resolution should be reached.

Denmark has dominated proceedings since, according to delegates in the committee.

Delegates in the committee reported the delegate of Sweden arguing that migration should be discussed with facts, not fear.

In the UN Legal Committee, a delegate representing Eritrea, who travelled from Lagos hoping to build connections at the conference, outlined his country's position on two agenda items: the criminalisation of environmental damage, and states that use non-armed groups and proxy forces to create instability. On the latter, he argued for international legal frameworks to hold such states accountable.

Committee sessions resume Tuesday morning, with blocs across the conference expected to move from working papers to draft resolutions ahead of Wednesday's closing plenary.

The Torch attended sessions in three committees on Monday: DISEC, SOCHUM and the UN Legal Committee. Other committees convened across nine venues.