The President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr. Omar Touray, says that ECOWAS plans to activate a 260,000-strong rapid deployment counter-terrorism brigade, with an annual funding requirement of $2.5bn.
Speaking at the 2025 African Chiefs of Defence Staff Summit in Abuja, with the theme “Combating Contemporary Threats to Regional Peace and Security in Africa: The Role of Strategic Defence Collaboration”, Dr. Touray said that the funds would be used to activate the brigade, provide logistics, and offer financial support to frontline states battling terrorism.
Dr, Touray, who was represented by the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, stated that the Sahel has become the epicentre of global terrorism, accounting for 51 per cent of related deaths worldwide in 2024, and warned that the growing threats demand an urgent and coordinated continental response.
“There is no gainsaying that West Africa, in particular the Sahel sub-region, has emerged as the epicentre of global terrorism, with several analytical surveys indicating that the Sahel accounted for 51 per cent of global terrorism deaths in 2024 alone,” Touray said.
According to him, the Sahel has become the epicentre of global terrorism, accounting for 51 per cent of related deaths worldwide in 2024, and warned that the growing threats demand an urgent and coordinated continental response.
“On the directive of the ECOWAS heads of Government, the organisation is in the process of activating a 260,000 rapid deployment counter-terrorism brigade and providing logistics and financial support to frontline states facing terrorism.
“While ECOWAS remains firmly committed to raising its 5,000-man brigade under the auspices of the African Peace and Security Architecture and more particularly the Continental Standby Force, the activation of this rapid deployment force has become a necessity given the asymmetric security dynamics in the region. We are conscious of the fact that this bold initiative requires the necessary financial resources and capabilities to make it a reality.
“To this end, ECOWAS will be hosting a meeting of the Ministers of Finance and Defence to agree on the country’s funding modalities to raise an annual budget of $2.5bn for the activation of the regional counter-terrorism force,” he said.
He added that the ministers will be meeting this coming Friday in Abuja to finalise modalities on how to raise the funds.
“By this initiative, ECOWAS is also throwing the gauntlet to bilateral and multilateral partners to complement this daring regional initiative. In particular, we hope that this summit will, through the African Union, send a clarion call to the United Nations to redeem the pledge made under United Nations Security Council Resolution 2719 of December 2023 to fund 75% of African-led peace support operations,” he said.
Touray added that ECOWAS was working to operationalise its integrated maritime security strategy, with three regional maritime centres, an international coordinating hub in Abuja, and measures to counter transnational organised crime.
In his speech, Nigeria’s former Minister of External Affairs, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, said that Africa was currently contending with more than 1,000 insurgent groups, urging regional blocs to build homegrown defence industries and technologies to confront rising insecurity.
He referred to some research work done by the African Research Network for Regional and Global Governance Innovation with headquarters in Savannah Center for Diplomacy, Democracy, and Development here in Nigeria, there are now over 1,000 insurgency groups in Africa, and the number keeps rising and the majority of our regional economic commission are actually dealing with banditry and terrorism and other forms of insurgency.
Gambari called on African nations to first secure their various nations before securing the region and the continent at large.
GIK/APA