Prez Mills leaves for ECOWAS summit

President John Evans Atta Mills left Accra on Wednesday to the Senegalese capital, Dakar to attend an emergency ECOWAS heads of state summit.

The summit will discuss the current political crisis in Mali and Guinea Bissau.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Minister Affairs and Regional Integration, Chris Kpodo told the media in a pre-departure briefing that the political climate in the two countries had further deteriorated, necessitating an urgent intervention by Heads of the sub-regional group.

It would be recalled that ECOWAS at the early stages of the crisis in both countries decided to send troops to monitor the transition to civilian rule.

The emergency meeting is expected to fine-tune details for troop deployment including size, time table and individual country commitments.

Security experts have however suggested that between 3,000 and 5,000 member-troop is required for Mali alone where the government was overthrown by a military junta in March this year.