The Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Government of Cabo Verde have taken a major step towards preventing regional crises with the inauguration of the National Early Warning Mechanism Coordination Centre (CNMAP) in Praia on October 30, 2026.
The ceremony was jointly presided over by General Birame Diop, President of the ECOWAS Commission, and Dr Manuel Augusto Amante da Rosa, Cabo Verde’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Communities and Defence.
The new facility is the ninth national centre of its kind established within the ECOWAS community. It is intended to strengthen national and regional capacity to anticipate security threats while promoting human security.
The event brought together other senior officials from the regional institution and the host country, including Anthony Oluwatosin Ogunjimi, Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission; Dr. Carla Bettencourt, auditor-general of ECOWAS institutions; and Captain Armindo Graça, who has been appointed to head the new national centre.
In their respective addresses, speakers stressed the urgent need to combine national ownership, institutional cooperation and regional coordination to build a more effective collective response mechanism.
Technically, the centre is expected to strengthen the ECOWAS Early Warning and Response Network (ECOWARN). By bringing risk analysis closer to local conditions and communities, it will help ensure that strategic information is more effectively transmitted to regional decision-making bodies.
Established under the 1999 Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security, the initiative reflects ECOWAS’s strategic commitment to preventive action and evidence-based decision-making, in line with its Vision 2050.
TE/Sf/lb/gik/APA