The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders at the annual summit meeting in Abuja on December 4th have decided to set up a regional peacekeeping force to intervene against jihadism in the region to prevent coups in future. The decision was announced by Omar Alieu Touray, president of the ECOWAS commission.
Many West African countries like Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso have witnessed increasing political instability with military coups over the last two years. All the three countries have been suspended from the decision-making bodies of ECOWAS. The region is increasingly confronting a wave of jihadism.
The decision by the West African Leaders is to take control of their own security in the region. The move is expected to restore constitutional order in a region. A communique from the leaders stated that the proposed regional force will intervene in the event of need, in areas such as security, terrorism, restore constitutional order etc. So far, the national militaries and security agencies have been unable to control the jihadist forces operating across borders and have been seeking help from external actors such as the UN, France and Russia.
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It was also announced that the 15 member region’s defense chiefs would meet next month to chalk out the operational details.
