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Nigeria: Ecowas - Niger Delta Crisis, Threat to Regional Security
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This Day (Lagos)
20 May 2008
Posted to the web 20 May 2008
Gboyega Akinsanmi and Eddie Alegbe
Lagos
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has decried the continuing armed attacks in the Niger Delta region, observing that the crisis "is threat to the regional peace and security."
President of ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas described it as a major regional concern.
Addressing ECOWAS Council of Ministers at the end of a two-day meeting in Abuja he sought a comprehensive regional approach to end the high spates of attack in the region.
He said the continuing attacks in the Niger Delta region has become a major source of regional concern after the end of almost all armed conflicts and civil wars that once ravaged some ECOWAS states
He said: "There are some areas of concern which include migration, continuing armed attacks in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria as well as instability in the northern parts of Ghana ,Mali and Niger."
Chambas said there were no active conflicts in the region apart from that of Niger Delta.
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He added it was an index of general improvement with signs of stabilization in many areas like Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo among others.He hinged the feat on the regional stability, which he believes, was being enhanced through credible organisation of legislative and presidential elections in many of the member states.He also identified other threats to regional peace and security as armed banditry, hostage-taking, human trafficking and other criminal activities amidst the continuing proliferation of small arms and light weapons.Chambas said: "Particularly worrisome is the spreading phenomenon of drug trafficking which poses a serious challenge to member states. Drug trafficking requires a regional approach.He, however, said the region still "faces a myriad of challenges which impede its ability to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He said the challenges include poverty, infrastructure decay, insufficient formal intra-regional trade and increase in the prices of commodities, particularly food and oil.While calling on Member States to sustain the economic and financial reforms embarked upon which are aimed at enhancing the growth of the regional economy, the President also implored oil-exporting Member States to show solidarity with their non oil-exporting counterparts. Chambas, who later presented the 2008 Interim Report of the Commission, added that the socio-economic and political trends in the region had been positive unlike the previous years. He said West Africa experienced an increase in GDP from $141.9 billion in 2005 to $199.1 billion in 2007, assuring that the regional GDP is projected to reach $232.7 billion in 2008.
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