Cotonou - Benin — The security within the ECOWAS region, the intra-community movement of small arms and light weapons as well as the constitution of the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) were among the issues that dominated the agenda of the 27th Ordinary Session of the Committee of ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff, which opened on in Cotonou, Benin.
Members will also review documents on the ECOWAS Standby Force Information and Communication Systems (ICS) and consider reports from the UN peacekeeping missions in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and Liberia (UNMIL).
This 27th Ordinary Session of the Committee of ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff ends on 15 April 2010 and will be followed the next day with the participation of the members in the VIP Day of exercise « COHESION BENIN 2010 organised by the armed forces of Benin.
This multinational joint exercise, which forms part of the Beninois Armed Forces training activities for the year 2010, will also serve as an opportunity to validate the ECOWAS Standby Force Eastern Battalion. It will take place in Kétou, a town about hundred kilometres from Porto-Novo, the Capital of Benin.
COHESION BENIN 2010, which will take place in Ketou, about a hundred kilometers from the capital Porto Novo, will feature Infantry Units, the Light Amoured Cavalry, the Military Engineering, the Air Force, the Navy and the National Gendarmerie. Some 1,684 soldiers and police from Benin, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo are taking part in this miltary exercise.