West Africa to activate units for regional rapid response force

ABUJA (AFP) May 28, 2003
West African countries have agreed to activate standby units to set up a regional rapid response force and reaffirmed a commitment to triple the size of their peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast.

At an extraordinary meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja to mark the 28th anniversary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), leaders of the 15-nation bloc vowed to do more to head off conflict in the region.

"Member states pledged to augment the troops' level in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to meet the expanded mandate of the ECOWAS mission," said a statement released after a summit attended by senior officials from eight members.

The members "undertook to activate the standby units within the armed forces of member states for the establishment of an ECOWAS rapid response force."

Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo and Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade were mandated to present the bloc's "Declaration on a sub-regional approach to peace and security" to next week's G8 summit of rich nations in France.

ECOWAS currently has a little over 1,000 peacekeepers policing a ceasefire between government forces and rebels in Ivory Coast, working alongside a 3,000 strong French force and a small team of UN liaison officers.

It plans to triple the number of its troops on the ground.

The leaders "expressed satisfaction with the progress recorded towards the restoration of peace" in Ivory Coast, where a national unity government has taken office and a ceasefire is holding in much of the country.

"They however expressed concern at the insecurity in the west of the country created by mercenaries, militiamen and other armed groups, which continue to fight, plunder and terrorise peace-loving inhabitants," the statement said.

ECOWAS has in the past won international praise for the peacekeeping missions it sent into Liberia and Sierra Leone.

But its response to last year's uprising in Ivory Coast was slow, forcing former colonial power France to take a bigger role than initially planned.

Next week Obasanjo, Wade and three other African presidents will meet the leaders of the world's most industrialised countries at the G8 summit in France to try and persuade them that Africa is serious about sorting out its problems.

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