Abuja - Nigeria — West Africa’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers will meet in Abuja on Friday, 9th November 2012 as the region continues consultations on UN Security Council Resolution 2071 of 12th October 2012 relating to the deployment of troops to help Mali restore its territorial integrity.

The meeting, being held under the aegis of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council (MSC), is one in the series of meetings convened by the region in response to the 45-day deadline set by the UN Security Council for the clarification of aspects of the concept, modalities and means regarding the planned deployment following the occupation of the north of the country by separatists and terrorist networks. The MSC is the main organ responsible for the maintenance of regional peace and security under the ECOWAS security architecture.

The one-day meeting will consider the report of the regional Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff on the concept of operations for the deployment of regional troops, which was finalised by security and military experts from ECOWAS, the African Union, the UN, the European Union and other partners during a previous meeting at the beginning of the month in Bamako, Mali. The President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, will brief the ministers on the political and security situations in Mali and Guinea-Bissau, where the army had also struck in April 2012.

There will also be statements from the MSC Chairman Daniel Kablan Duncan, the Chairman of the Committee of ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff, General Soumaila Bakayoko, and Mali’s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister, Honourable Tieman Coulibaly, to the Abuja MSC meeting.