African Leaders determined to uproot terrorism, military coups in Africa -Envoys

African Leaders are determined to uproot terrorism and unconstitutional changes in government, ECOWAS and African Union ambassadors have said.
The envoys made this known in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the end of a consultation meeting between ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council (MSC) and AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) on Thursday in Abuja.
They said terrorism and unconstitutional change in governance were the two major existential threats facing the continent.
Amb. Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner, Political Affairs, Peace and Security, for instance, disclosed that ECOWAS’ MSC and AU’s PSC were already intensifying numerous efforts towards resolving the asymmetric challenges facing Africa.
He said that such efforts were being vigorously carried out under the auspices of the AU’s 1999 Convention against terrorism, and ECOWAS’ 2019 plan of action for the eradication of terrorism.
“It is about how we should institutionalise predictable collaborative arrangements between the African Union, the regional economic communities and the regional mechanisms on a broad area.
“We have chosen terrorism and unconstitutional changes of government as the main issues to discuss because these are the two existential threats that are facing the West African region today.
“We are going to have a clear roadmap or joint action plan between ECOWAS and the African Union on the challenges facing West Africa, with regards to a framework of action, and raise resources together to confront the challenges facing us to meet the exigencies of the time.
“In order to deal effectively with terrorism, we need actually to go kinetic to make sure that terrorists are routed out of our region, and in order for them not to come back, we have to reestablish the social contract between the populations and the government,” he said.
Also speaking, Amb. Musa Nuhu, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to ECOWAS and MSC Chairman, said ECOWAS was leveraging synergy with AU, sister regional economic groups, and global partners, to tackle Africa’s terrorism and unconstitutional change of government challenges.
“We are talking about coordination and synergy in approaching so many emerging issues as the continent is facing unconstitutional changes of government, terrorism, banditry and other menaces.
“ECOWAS as a region needs to work with other regional economic groups, such as the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS, which is our immediate neighbor and the African Union, which is the umbrella body.
“This is to make sure that there is synergy and collaboration towards combating these challenges,” the ambassador said.
Amb. Nuhu disclosed that it was Nigeria that initiated the draft agenda and modalities for the AU-ECOWAS PSC-MSC maiden consultation meeting, with the view to stemming the tide of violent conflicts in Africa.(NAN)