President Ouedraogo Assures On Regional Security

24 May 2012
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Ouagadougou-Burkina Faso — The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, has affirmed that West Africa will overcome its "transient" security challenges for the sustenance of peace and stability in the region. "ECOWAS is all about economic and social development but we are temporarily concerned with peace and security," Ambassador Ouedraogo said on Thursday, 24th May 2012 at the ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The president was in the country to meet with staff of the Centre as well as those from the ECOWAS Water Resources Centre, the Zonal Observatory - an arm of the Early Warning Directorate of the ECOWAS Commission located in Ouagadougou and the West African Health Organization based in Bobo Dioulasso, the second largest city in Burkina Faso. He briefed the staff on mediation and other efforts being made by regional leaders to address the general issues of insecurity in the region, ranging from terrorist incursions in Nigeria by the Boko Haram group and attempts at illegal ascension to power and secession issues in Guinea Bissau and Mali. Recalling the objectives of ECOWAS as the improvement of the economic and social well-being of Community citizens, the president noted that these could not be achieved without peace and stability in the region. He insisted that this dream remains achievable despite the distractions of internal conflicts and the attendant humanitarian challenges, among others.

President Ouedraogo therefore called on staff of Community institutions to share his optimism of a brighter, peaceful and more secure and prosperous West Africa. He also thanked them for their contributions in helping the Institutions deliver on their mandates and objectives and keeping the integration process on course. Similarly, he expressed gratitude to the international community for its strong support to ECOWAS to ensure the return of normalcy in the region. During an interactive session, the president assured the staff that their welfare concerns would be satisfactorily addressed. This was the first meeting of the president with the Institution's staff in Burkina Faso since he assumed office on 1st March 2012 in Abuja.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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