The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has reached out to Egypt to explore possibilities for achieving peace and security in West Africa.

Abdel-Fatau Musa, ECOWAS commissioner of political affairs, Peace and Security, disclosed this while hosting the Egyptian ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS Mohamed Fouad at his office in Abuja. 

Mr Musa stated that the operationalisation of the ECOWAS counter-terrorism force is one such area where cooperation is needed to foster peace, stating that there are plans to convene a special summit on the future of regional integration.

He explained that the regional bloc was also working very hard to ensure that the heightened geopolitical interests in the region did not lead to proxy wars, assuring that ECOWAS had a lot to learn from Egypt on regional peace consolidation. 

According to Mr Musa, the commission was looking forward to seeing how Egypt can “support the impact of the dynamics of the current happenings in Libya in such a way as can guarantee the safety of the Sahel, having now been established that the Sahel is defining our peace and security environment today.”

However, he added that ECOWAS opposed the idea of member states withdrawing from the community because such actions would violate the principles of integration and pan-Africanism. 

Remarking, Mr Fouad acknowledged ECOWAS as the most successful regional economic community on the continent, saying that Egypt, not part of West Africa, was mindful of the proximity of the region’s border areas and the Maghreb.

He explained that Egypt was very much disposed to having a holistic approach to tackling terrorism, cross-border crimes, insecurity and insurgencies.

Mr Fouad added that Egypt’s cooperation with ECOWAS stems from mutual understanding and shared needs for capacity building and information exchange. 

Both sides expressed optimism that Egypt’s experiences would be very valuable to the regional peacekeeping, mediation, and integration efforts of ECOWAS.