OUAGADOUGOU, Sept 14 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will be holding an Extraordinary Meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on Saturday, to deliberate on the growing threats of terrorism in the region.
The summit has been described as a turning point in the fight against terrorism in the geographical area according to the ECOWAS commission president Jean Claude Brou.
For Burkinabé President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, the meeting provides an opportunity to take strong action against the scourge.
Terrorist attacks in West Africa and the Sahel region are mostly fuelled by the Boko Haram and al Qaeda terrorist groups.
The proposals of this meeting will be presented at the next United Nations General Assembly later this month in New York.
Most of the heads of Ecowas, the group of 15 countries on West Africa’s coast and hinterland, are expected to attend the one-day meeting, which Chad, Cameroon and Mauritania will also attend.
Leading the agenda will be a review of the G5 Sahel, a five-nation alliance to combat terrorism in the fragile region, which lies between the Sahara and Atlantic.
Backed by former colonial power France, the G5 Sahel was formed to great fanfare in 2014.
The centrepiece of its strategy has been an initiative, launched in July 2017, to pool 5,000 troops from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger and wrench back control from insurgent groups in the region.
But hamstrung by insufficient funds, training and equipment, the force has only now reached 4,000 troops, and for many analysts it seems to be losing the battle.
The extremists have spread from Mali to Burkina Faso and Niger, as well as Chad.
Their hit-and-run raids are inflicting growing human, economic and political tolls, sparking fears that the coastal countries to the south are next in line.
Another example of the difficulties the region faces came on Thursday, when two soldiers were killed in two attacks in northern Burkina Faso.
It was the latest in a series of deadly attacks on security forces in the landlocked West African nation.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also has a grim view of the situation.
“I totally believe we are not winning the war against terrorism in the Sahel and that the operation should be strengthened,” Guterres said last week. — NNN-AFRICANEWS