African leaders admit security woes

LEADERS from the west African bloc Ecowas at the weekend admitted during talks in the Nigerian capital that the region was in trouble, facing mounting unrest and political instability.

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"Our region is at the crossroads," said Sierra Leone’s Julius Maada Bio as he took over the rotating chairmanship of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) from Nigeria's Bola Tinubu.

West Africa is “facing serious challenges, some long-standing, others new and evolving”, he said.

They included “insecurity in the Sahel and coastal states, terrorism, political instability, illicit arms flow and transnational organised crimes”.

It was time to “overhaul our collective security architecture” including intelligence-sharing and rapid response, he added. “The democratic space is under strain in parts of our region — the constitutional order has been disrupted.”