President John Mahama has called for a review of the ECOWAS protocol on terrorism in order to fight the activities of terrorist groups in the sub-regions.
[contextly_sidebar id=”WNt8wDQwruCLfXKbyw8tgr8lPdzO4v6B”]President Mahama, who is also the ECOWAS chairman expressed worry over the activities of terrorist groups, particularly, Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the President said that although the sub-regional body is currently working to stop the increasing terror attacks, it could do more with a strengthened protocol on terror.
“I’m requesting that in the light of this situation, we will define our protocols, these are extra ordinary times that call for measures that are equally extraordinary,” he advised.
“We must find a way to act together, to share information, to synchronize our strategies and to pull our resources in order to rate the entire African continent of terrorism so that we can retrain our focus on development, educating our children, improving our health care systems and growing our economies,” he added.
The ECOWAS Chairman revealed that the committee had condemned the several terrorist attacks especially in Nigeria, stating, “immediately we received report on the most recent attacks, ECOWAS issued a statement condemning them and reaffirming our stance in solidarity with Nigeria.”
However, disclosed that the expected African Union summit will be used to discuss issues relating to terrorism and finding a way forward
“As the chairman of ECOWAS, I am requesting a special session at the upcoming 24th African Union summit in order to discuss and plan; not as separate sub-regions but as one united continent, the way forward in our collective fight against terrorism.”
President Mahama therefore expressed optimism in finding solutions to African terrorism at the end of the summit adding, “it is my intention for us to emerge from that session with a specific plan on action o deal permanently with the issue of terror from on continent.”
By: Patricia Conteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana