The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is putting its “standby force” project back on the table to now essentially fight terrorism. Details have leaked from the meeting between the defense and finance ministers of the countries of the regional organization held this week on the subject in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
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With our regional correspondent, Serge Daniel
For the new version of the “regional standby force,” two configurations are possible. According to Mohamed Badaru Abubakar, Nigeria’s defense minister, one involves 5,000 troops, at a cost of $2.6 billion per year.
The second hypothesis is a “standby force” composed of 1,500 soldiers. To make it work, it will be necessary to find nearly 500 million dollars each year.
Nigeria, whose head of state is the current president of the Economic Community of West African States insists: the main mandate of the standby force will no longer be the overthrow of regimes resulting from coups d’état, but the fight against terrorism. Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso led by putschists who slammed the door of ECOWAS are invited to participate in this force.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission justifies this decision as follows: “ Although countries are under sanctions, they should be allowed to participate in security-related meetings “But during the meeting, the places of these three countries remained empty, they did not respond to the invitation.