The participants at the end of the programme
NATIONAL SECURITY Advisors from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have held discussions on emerging security threats facing the sub-region and possible ways of addressing them.
At the maiden Ordinary Meeting of the ECOWAS Forum of National Security Advisors (FNSA), held in Accra between Saturday, February 26 and Sunday, February 27, participants, among others, deliberated on ways of enhancing rapid and appropriate regional responses to the emerging security threats in West Africa.
Some strategic approaches for addressing the gaps in response to regional security threats identified at the end of the meeting include building and strengthening collective regional response capabilities to the common regional security threats.
This would be enhanced through the effective cooperation in border management, operationalisation of the ECOWAS Stand-by Force to ensure its effectiveness and efficiency and the intensification of efforts at full integration as an insurance for peace and stability within the sub-region.
The meeting also identified the need to build capabilities for anticipating regional security threats, including the intensification and strengthening of intelligence gathering, analysis, and sharing of information; while developing regional security strategies that focus on human security as an insurance for sub-regional peace, security, and stability.
The maiden FNSA was attended by National Security Advisors of ECOWAS member states including Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, and chaired by Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere (rtd).
There were also representatives of the ECOWAS Political Affairs, Peace and Security Commission and Early Warning Directorate; invited experts and observers from the Africa Center of Strategic Studies (ACSS).
The forum aimed at providing advice to the Mediation and Security Council (MSC) on matters related to regional security and emerging threats in West Africa; assisting the MSC on matters related to regional security, particularly supporting the prevention of conflict mechanisms, through anticipation and foresight capabilities; as well as providing analysis, studies and evidence-based recommendations on any matter related to regional security as requested by the ECOWAS or its Member States.
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio