A standby force is set to be established by the Economic Community of West African States to aid Nigeria and other West African nations in combating terrorism.
This initiative comes as the bloc faces escalating terrorism in the Sahel region.
ECOWAS aimed to raise $2.4 billion to create this force, as announced by the regional body’s Commissioner in charge of Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, on Tuesday at the opening of a three-day consultative meeting of the commandants of the three designated ECOWAS Training Centres of Excellence, in Abuja.
Musah highlighted the severity of the terrorist threat in the region, with Burkina Faso now surpassing Afghanistan as the most terrorised state.
He said, “If you look at our region, it is being ravaged by terrorists. Today, Burkina Faso has overtaken Afghanistan as the most terrorised state on earth, and Africa has become home to terrorist organisations.
“Elsewhere in the world, there are opportunistic terrorist attacks like we saw in some countries not too long ago.
“We are faced with the nightmare of having one of our member states being completely occupied by terrorist groups.”
“If they set up a front base in one country, then no country is safe, and we have already seen the impact of that on some of the coastal countries – Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire – over the past few years,” Musah added.
Despite progress in Nigeria against Boko Haram, Musah emphasised the need for collective action to address terrorism across the region.
The commissioner stated that “in Nigeria, thanks to the efforts of the Nigerian Government, Boko Haram has been degraded to the extent that they do not pose a sustainable threat to the peace and security of Nigeria.
“In the coming weeks, ECOWAS has already developed operational modalities, the concept of operations, and everything for us to aggregate with the Chiefs of Defence Staff.
“It will be something like an advanced and rapid reaction force of a battalion that will be able to confront terrorists’ bases.”
He explained that as part of the resolution of the authority of Heads of State, $2.4bn would be raised to fund the ECOWAS standby force to tackle the security challenges head-on.
“The Heads of States have decided that in the first year, we must raise about $2.4 billion to support the operation of this force to face the terrorists,” he disclosed.
The standby force will be supported by designated ECOWAS Training Centres of Excellence in Nigeria, Ghana, and Mali, with plans for operations and funding discussions underway.
The Commandant of the National Defence College, Rear Admiral Olumuyiwa Olotu, said West Africa remained the only region that assigned training centres with a special mandate.
He urged participants to take advantage of the opportunity to exchange useful ideas to step up the counter-terrorist campaign.
The three centres of excellence are the National Defence College, Nigeria; the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Ghana; and Ecole de Maintien de la Paix Alioune Blondin Beye, Mali.
The consultative engagement is a biannual event coordinated by the Directorate of Peacekeeping and Regional Security of ECOWAS, which aims to support training, capacity building, research and development of the ECOWAS Standby Force, and general peace and security within the sub-region.
