By Linus Aleke
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said, it will now take more aggressive and kinetic moves to end terrorism and the unconstitutional seizure of power in West Africa.
To achieve this, the sub-regional power, also proposed the enhancement of ECOWAS Standby Force, to deal frontally with terrorists and coupists in the community.
President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Alieu Touray, gave this hint, while, presenting the state of implementation of the Community work programmes, at the ongoing 2023 First Ordinary Session of ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja.
He said: “To eradicate terrorism and deter anti-constitutional changes in Government, the Authority of Heads of State and Government gave directive regarding enhancing the role of the ECOWAS Standby Force for deployment to fight terrorism and anti-constitutional changes in government.
This effort is ongoing. Meanwhile, we have continued to monitor the transitions in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea. Additional sanctions were placed on the officials of the military government to maintain pressure on them to work towards the implementation of the 24-month transition calendars agreed with us.
“Nonetheless, to assist these countries in defending their territories from occupation by terrorists, the ECOWAS Authority mandated us to seek support from the security agencies. We have been making advocacies to international
partners to assist Burkina Faso and Mali in their fight against terrorism. This is yielding some results. On our part, we are intensifying our humanitarian assistance to the people of the affected communities”.
On the regional action against terrorism, Dr Touray said, ECOWAS has been advised by experts from the National
security agencies to prioritize the deployment of assistance to existing regional arrangements such as the Accra Initiative, the G5 Sahel, and the Multinational Joint Task Force, all within the framework of the ECOWAS Action Plan.
He disclosed that the concept of Operations for the deployment of ECOWAS Standby Force to fight against terrorism and unconstitutional changes of government has two options.
He noted that option one provides for a Brigade of 5,000 personnel with its structure, composition, and the necessary logistics to conduct kinetic operations, and its estimated annual cost is USD2,253,862,306.00.
Option two, the President said, consists of the deployment of critical capabilities in support of affected Member States upon request with an estimated annual cost of USD352,833,334.00.
The overall estimated cost, Dr. Touray, said is USD2,606,695,640, noting that this shows the cost involved in security and reminds us of the need to invest in conflict prevention.
In this regard, he said, ECOWAS institutions have continued with their efforts to tackle the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
“Working with the national commissions on small arms, some training was conducted between January and March 2023. About eighty personnel from the security services who are focal persons of the Exemption Procedure in their respective ministries and agencies acquired requisite knowledge on arms transfer management as well as competencies and skills for enhanced management of the ECOWAS Exemption Procedure,” Dr Touray concluded.
