ECOWAS meets in Abuja to discuss regional security
February 17, 2012
Representatives of the 15 member states of ECOWAS will be hard pressed to cover the many crucial issues affecting West Africa in the meeting which is slated for just two days.
Food security is a major topic on the long list of problems facing ECOWAS leaders. For years, Mali and Niger have not had enough rain, resulting in practically non-existent harvests. In northern Nigeria, many refugees from Niger are begging in the streets.
AQIM alert
Heightened insecurity in the Sahel region is also high on the agenda of the two-day ECOWAS meeting being held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. It takes place at a time when a number of countries – Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – are facing renewed threats from the North African branch of al Qaeda, known as al Qaeda in the Islamic World (AQIM). Mali is also dealing with an offensive by Tuareg rebels who have attacked several towns in the north as part of a long-running struggle to secure autonomy for their nomadic desert tribes.
The unrest has resulted in widespread internal displacement and a surge in refugees fleeing the country. According to the International committee of the Red Cross (IRC) at least 30,000 internally displaced people are living in Mali in "precarious conditions". A further 20,000 are believed to have fled the country.
Geographical limitations
In his opening address, Nigerian president and outgoing ECOWAS chairman Goodluck Jonathan listed the challenges facing the organization.
"In the Gulf of Guinea, the increasing incidence of piracy has reached a worrisome dimension. This is compounded by drug trafficking, oil bunkering and people trafficking. All of this requires urgent and concerted action," he told fellow regional leaders.
Sebastian Sperling is the head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's Office for Regional Security in West Africa, based in Abuja. He believes that dealing with the conflicts in the Sahel zone is a challenge that goes beyond ECOWAS.
"It is something that equally affects northern Africa, " he told DW. "There is a certain geographical limit to what ECOWAS can do. It needs to extend its dialogue to the northern neighbors."
Author: Susan Houlton/Ben Shemang, Abuja
Editor: Mark Caldwell/mik