ABUJA, Nigeria
West African leaders agreed on
Sunday to create a regional force to intervene against jihadism and in the
event of coups, a senior official said.
Leaders of the Economic
Community of West African States had decided to act to “take care of our own
security in the region”, Omar Alieu Touray, president of the ECOWAS commission,
told journalists at a summit in Nigeria.
They are “determined to
establish a regional force that will intervene in the event of need, whether
this is in the area of security, terrorism and restore constitutional order in
member countries,” he added.
Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso
have all been hit by military coups in the last two years.
Several countries in the
region are also suffering from the spread of jihadism, including Mali, Burkina
Faso and Niger, and southwards to the Gulf of Guinea.
National armies, largely
powerless against the jihadist forces operating across borders, have been
cooperating with external actors such as the UN, France and Russia.
But Touray said this decision
would “restructure our security architecture”.
The modalities of the planned
regional force will be considered by defence chiefs in the second half of 2023,
Touray said.
The funding of the force must
also be decided, but the ECOWAS official stressed that such an operation could
not be solely dependent on voluntary contributions.
Addressing another regional
problem, the West African leaders told Mali’s ruling junta to release 46
Ivorian troops it has held since July.
“We ask the Malian authorities
to release the Ivorian soldiers by January 1, 2023 at the latest,” said Touray,
at the Abuja summit.
The Gambian diplomat said the
West African bloc reserved the right to act if the soldiers were not released
by January 1.
If Mali fails to do so, ECOWAS
will impose sanctions, a West African diplomat told AFP.
Togolese President Faure
Gnassingbe, who has been mediating between Mali and Ivory Coast on the issue,
will travel to Mali to “demand” the release of the soldiers, the diplomat
added.
The Ivorian troops were
arrested on July 10 on their arrival at the airport in Mali’s capital Bamako.
Ivory Coast says the troops
were sent to provide backup for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA,
and are being unfairly detained.
Mali says the troops are
mercenaries and has placed them in custody on charges of attempting to harm
state security.
ECOWAS had decided at an
extraordinary summit in September to send a high-level delegation to Mali to
try to resolve the crisis. But no progress was reported from this mission.
The West African leaders,
concerned about instability and contagion, have been pressing for months for
the quickest possible return to civilian rule in the three countries which have
undergone coups in recent years.
Mali and Burkina Faso have
both been severely shaken by the spread of jihadism.
All three countries have been
suspended from the decision-making bodies of ECOWAS.
Leaders of the military juntas
have pledged, under pressure, to step down after two years, allowing for a
transition period during which they all say they want to “rebuild” their state.
ECOWAS has been looking to see
what progress each nation has been making towards restoring constitutional
order.
In Mali, “it is essential that
constitutional order returns within the planned timeframe”, said Touray.
If Mali’s military meets the
announced deadline of March 2024 — after months of confrontation with ECOWAS
and a severe trade and financial embargo that has now been lifted — the
“transition” will in fact have lasted three and a half years.
Touray urged the junta in
Guinea to involve all parties and civil society in dialogue “immediately” on
the process of restoring civilian rule.
The main political parties and
much of civil society there have been boycotting the authorities’ offer of
dialogue.
As for Burkina Faso, Touray
expressed ECOWAS’s “serious concerns” about the security situation and the
humanitarian crisis there, while pledging support for the country. - AFP
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