The Economic Community of West African States wants to equip itself with an anti-terrorist and anti-coup military force. The announcement was made on Sunday December 4 at the end of the organisation’s heads of state summit in Abuja.
The Cdao aspires to create a stabilization force which should make it possible to fight against insecurity in the sub-region. When the jihadists seized northern Mali in 2012, the West African organization was already planning to mobilize a regional force. But the reflection had never materialized and Mali had to request the French army – Operation Serval – then the Misma of the African Union, which became Minusma when the United Nations took over.
For Niagal Bagayoko, president of the African Security Sector Network, this will pose “institutional difficulties”. She also wonders about the question of resources: Have the equipment and logistical shortcomings, which largely caused her inability to deploy in Mali in 2012, been resolved? .