ECOWAS Chairman appoints Compaore Guinea facilitator

The Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of Nigeria, has appointed President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso as facilitator on the Guinean crisis for the sub-regional body and the International Contact Group on Guinea (ICG-G).

A statement from ECOWAS received in Accra on Monday said the appointment is sequel to the request of the ICG-G during its last meeting held on September 22 in New York where it reviewed the situation in Guinea as well as Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The statement said it was expected that President Compaore would visit Guinea within the next couple of days to begin his mission.

The Guinean situation has been complicated by the death of 157 people who were attending an opposition rally at a stadium in Conakry.

The last ICG-G meeting was attended by representatives of the African Union, ECOWAS, the United Nations, the European Union, Mano River Union, CEN-SAD, the Organisation of Islamic Conference and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

There were also representatives of the World Bank, Libya, which is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Nigeria, Germany, Spain, Japan and Permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely the United States of America, France, the United Kingdom and Russia.