ECOWAS says displacement across West Africa needs to be addressed
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) have increased to 3.3 million in Nigeria with all Northern states buffeted by terrorists who launch attacks day and night with greater confidence as the Islamists have infiltrated and weakened national security.
ECOWAS Commission Vice President Finda Koroma disclosed the figure in Abuja where she said displacement across West Africa also needs to be addressed.
“We also need to address the crisis of displacement. For instance, Burkina Faso has experienced an explosion in its forced displacement crisis because of militant Islamist group violence originating in Mali. Its current 1.2 million displaced population represents a nine-fold increase from 2019.
“Additionally, violent attacks by Boko Haram in the Northeastern in Nigeria have resulted in the displacement of 2.5 million Nigerians, whilst kidnappings, extortion, and organised criminal attacks in the Northwest have displaced an additional 800,000 people,” Koroma said at the Stakeholders Workshop on the Best Practices for Stabilisation in West Africa.
“We need to find a way to return these communities to the homes, safely.
“It is against this backdrop that ECOWAS Commission, in partnership with development organisations and governments, have embarked on an ambitious journey of introducing interventions designed to stabilise conflict affected areas, address the root causes of insecurity, and set them on the path for sustainable development through recovery and building community resilience.”
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Stabilising conflict affected communities
“In partnership with the German government, we have established the ECOWAS Fund for Regional Stabilisation and Development in fragile member states,” Koroma added, according to reporting by The Nation.
“The objective of this programme is to stabilise conflict affected communities through provision of sustainable economic opportunities and essential services for conflict affected communities, construction or rehabilitation of key national infrastructure and capacity building for governance and security institutions.”
The ECOWAS Stabilisatiom Programme was launched in The Gambia as a pilot project, and in 2020, Guinea Bissau, Niger, and Mali formed part of the first phase of the project.
The programme has committed about €45 million in the pilot and regional scale-up phases.
“The ECOWAS Commission has also contributed US$1 million on an annual basis since 2019.
“It is worth noting that border communities are often most vulnerable to conflict and that many of our own interventions will necessarily include a cross border element.
“Moreover, projects that are implemented on both sides of border communities foster regional integration, which embodies the main mandate of ECOWAS.”
