Abuja, May 8, 2024 – ECOWAS is to raise $2.4 billion to establish a standby force to combat growing terrorism within the sub-region.
Abdel-Fatau Musah, its commissioner in charge of Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, announced this in Abuja on Tuesday at the opening of a three-day consultative meeting of the commandants of the three designated ECOWAS Training Centres of Excellence.
Musah highlighted the severity of the terrorist threat in the region, saying Burkina Faso has now surpassed Afghanistan as the most terrorised state on earth.
“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.
“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.” (GBN)
