ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff want Contact Mission to Guinea Bissau
Worried over the recent killings and violence in Guinea Bissau, the ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff, which ended its 25th meeting in Ouagadougou late Thursday, 11th June 2009, has called for the immediate despatch of a contact mission to that country.
The mission which will comprise the Chiefs of Defence Staff of Benin, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Nigeria and Senegal, is expected to help find practical solutions to the many political and security challenges that are threatening to plunge the country into lawlessness and deeper political instability.
This decision, among others, follows the recent spate of violence and murders, including the 4th June 2009 assassinations of one of the presidential candidates for the 28th June 2009 elections, Mr. Baciro Dabo and a former Defence Minister, Helder Proenca along with two of his bodyguards.
The Chiefs of Defence Staff also provisionally approved the proposed structure of the ECOWAS Standby Force Main Brigade. They are expected to give their full endorsement at their next meeting which will take place in Freetown, Sierra Leone in the next quarter.
The new structure would help prepare the ESF for the planned continental exercise of the African Union to test the operational readiness of the African Standby Force early 2010.
The Chiefs of Defence Staff also agreed to lend support to the Military Network of West and Central Africa, which is being facilitated by UNAIDS, to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Armed Forces.
The decision to support the anti-AIDS campaign within the military was in acknowledgement of the vulnerability of military personnel, especially those involved in conflict situations, to HIV infection.
Along with ECOWAS Member States at the meeting were the Force Commanders of the United Nations Mission in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the United Nations Office in West Africa (UNOWA), the Commander of the French Forces in Cape Verde (FFCV), the Defence Attaché of Angola and a representative of UNAIDS.