Dominic Nitiwul, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, General Francis Boniface Behanzin Awagbe, and Dr. Lika Kuol, the CDS Vice Adm. Seth Amoama and others in a group photograph with National Security Advisors of ECOWAS regions
ECOWAS National Security Advisors have been charged to embark on concerted actions to reverse the gloomy security challenges in the sub-region.
Dominic Nitiwul, Ghana’s Defence Minister who made the call said it is common knowledge that the security situation in the sub-region has deteriorated within the past years, with terrorist activities causing havoc.
“Many lives have been lost while millions of people are internally displaced, schools are closed, markets and health facilities have become inaccessible to many people particularly in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger,” he disclosed.
He said even more worrisome is the spate of coups in three countries in the region and a failed one in another.
Dominic Nitiwul made the call while addressing the ECOWAS forum of National Security Advisors conference held in Accra over the weekend.
The conference, which is the first to be held, was attended by National Security Advisors from eleven countries including Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Gambia and Ghana.
Speaking on the theme: “Enhancing rapid and appropriate regional responses to emerging security threats in West Africa: Bridging the gaps between early warning and early response,” Mr. Nitiwul said as a newly created ECOWAS advisory body, it bestows on members to develop appropriate strategies which will support existing mechanisms to improve on the security of the sub-region.
Ghana’s National Security Advisor, Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere (rtd) in an address expressed their gratitude to President Akufo-Addo for taking up the matter and ensuring that Security Advisors come together under one platform to discuss security threats in the sub-region and how to curb it.
Also present were Ghana’ s Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Chairman of ECOWAS Commission, General Francis Boniface Behanzin Awagbe, Dr. Lika Kuol of African Centre for Strategic Studies, representatives of the Interior Ministry, the Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Seth Amoama, the Chief of Army Staff, other senior military officers and the United States Embassy in Ghana.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey