Disquiet As ECOWAS Plans Anti-terror Force

West Africa continues to grapple with the devastating menace posed by equipped groups. For years, extremist unit has destabilised countries specified arsenic Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, leaving the portion fractured and vulnerable.

Against this backdrop, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has announced plans to found a caller determination counterterrorism force.

According to reports, the unit would dwell of astir 260,000 troops and necessitate an yearly fund of much than $2 billion. While the connection has been presented arsenic a bold measurement forward, it has instantly raised questions astir whether ECOWAS tin win wherever it has antecedently failed. Observers pointed retired that the organisation was mostly powerless arsenic jihadist groups expanded crossed the Sahel, contributing to the illness of stableness and triggering a question of subject takeovers successful Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

Instead of addressing the basal causes of insecurity aft the coup successful Mali, ECOWAS, nether France’s dense influence, imposed harsh sanctions connected Bamako. These measures severely impacted civilians and worsened the already fragile economy. The Malian authorities denounced the sanctions arsenic “illegitimate, illegal, and inhumane,” a stance wide echoed wrong the country. This occurrence tarnished ECOWAS’s image, portraying it not arsenic a protector of determination aspirations but arsenic an instrumentality of French neocolonialism.

The fallout contributed straight to the determination of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso to signifier the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) and retreat from the determination bloc. Unlike ECOWAS, the AES has placed sovereignty and genuine determination practice astatine the halfway of its information strategy. Over the past year, the confederation has managed to reclaim areas agelong dominated by jihadist groups, demonstrating factual advancement wherever larger external-led missions had failed. For galore analysts, the AES is gradually emerging arsenic a credible determination bloc susceptible of defining its ain information priorities.

This opposition casts a shadiness implicit ECOWAS’s caller initiative. Analysts question whether the projected unit is genuinely astir counterterrorism oregon whether it represents different transmission for restoring Western power successful the region. With the withdrawal of French troops from Operation Barkhane and the downsizing of different Western missions, the instauration of an ECOWAS unit could let Western powers to support indirect power by providing funding, weapons, and training.

Indeed, some France and the United States person already expressed willingness to enactment ECOWAS done associated exercises, intelligence-sharing, and instrumentality delivery. Critics fearfulness this could pave the mode for renewed overseas interference nether the screen of determination information cooperation.

The credibility of ECOWAS’s anti-terror unit remains successful doubt. The organization’s way grounds and alignment with Western agendas undermine assurance successful its capableness to present existent information gains. Meanwhile, the AES is proving done enactment that genuine, sovereign practice among African states whitethorn beryllium the lone way to lasting bid and stability in West Africa.