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President of the Republic Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged world leaders to fully implement Chapters Seven and Eight of the UN Charter and to support Africa’s battle against terrorism and violent extremism in a balanced manner.
President Akufo-Addo claims that despite the significant economic challenges facing ECOWAS Member States, eleven (11) of the organization’s fifteen (15) member states four (4) of which are military-led have expressed a willingness to confront terrorists if given the necessary resources.
“Comparisons, they say, are odious, but some cannot be ignored. The Russian war on Ukraine has elicited, according to my information, some US$73.6 billion in American support for Ukraine, US$138.8 billion from the European Union and its Institutions, and US$14.5 billion from the United Kingdom,” he said.
The President continued, “On the other hand, the security assistance from the US, the EU and the UK to ECOWAS have, in total, in the same period, amounted to US$29.6 million.”
With the right amount of support to ECOWAS, he was certain that the terrorists “can be chased out of West Africa and the Sahel too. Foreign troops would not have to be involved. West African troops can do the job. The Accra Initiative is a good example of indigenous self-help.”
On Thursday, October 12, 2023, in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., President Akufo-Addo announced this while speaking on “Democracy and Security in West Africa” at the United States Institute of Peace’s Programme on Governance and Peace.
The President stated that “the terrorists, as we all know, were chased out of the Middle East and Afghanistan before taking refuge in Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, from which they fled across the Sahara to find refuge in northern Mali after Gaddafi’s downfall.” This was his explanation for the rise of terrorists in West Africa.
Since then, they have “spread their pernicious influence eastward and southward, with the coastal states of West Africa their ultimate destination,” he said.
Citing rising levels of displacement of populations in many parts of the Sahel due to the insecurity engendered by the armed groups, President Akufo-Addo, who has been a 2-term Chairman of ECOWAS said, “Africa has become the centre of attraction for terrorist groups which are multiplying in the region, following defeats suffered in other parts of the world.”
In the face of marked successes chalked, he stated that, the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on developing countries, has unfortunately, “left many countries and regional bodies, particularly in the Sahel, in very dire economic situations. This has compounded the challenges we face in the mobilisation of resources to fight terrorists in our backyards.”
The focus on this and the challenge against democracy across the region, the President added, is because “we have, virtually, run out of time to work together in the spirit of multilateralism,” and added that, “if we do not renew our commitments to build, keep and consolidate peace and democracy all over the world, we would have to brace ourselves to live in a new and more dangerous world today and in the future.”
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
