By: Lamin B. Darboe
The increasing spite of political instability and security challenges in the ECOWAS region has often necessitated the deployment of ECOWAS Peace Support Operations (PSOs) mandated by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government. It’s in this framework that ECOWAS is organizing in-mission training for staff officers deployed to the ECOWAS Mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG) from July 8 to 12, 2024, in Banjul.
This training was used to strengthen the capacities of the newly rotated personnel in understanding the framework in which they are operating. The completed training will help the personnel to implement the right operational procedures equivalent to their respective roles in the Mission.
The participants at the training included the staff officers of the Mission Headquarters, Contingent Commanders from Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal as well as personnel of the Gambian Defense and Security Agencies.
The Commandant of the KAIPTC in his opening remarks: acknowledged the contributions of ECOWAS towards sustaining peace and security within the West Africa region.
He thanked the GIZ-EPSAO project co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for their contributions to the development of the Staff Officers Handbook and the steps taken to further implement the pilot training in 2023 in the Gambia and Guinea-Bissau which were recorded successful and now the 2nd iteration of the training for the newly rotated personnel of the ECOMIG.
The Deputy Head of the EU Delegation in The Gambia, Mr. Raphael Brigandi stated that the EU is committed to continued partnership and support to ECOWAS efforts towards improving the readiness of its civilian, police, and military personnel earmarked for deployment.
He noted that over 300 personnel have been trained through the EPSAO Project while expressing his gratitude to ECOWAS, KAIPTC, and GIZ EPSAO for the strong collaboration, commitment, and teamwork that have been instrumental in developing this course handbook and organizing the in-mission training.
In declaring the training opened, the Resident Representative of the ECOWAS in The Gambia, Her Excellency Mrs. Miatta Lily French, who was represented by Mr. Claude Kondor stated that ECOWAS has been at the forefront of the search for sustainable peace and security within its Member States.
“Without peace and security, development and economic integration of the entire region will be difficult to achieve,” she added.
She continued that various protocols have been articulated and adopted to address the numerous security challenges that transformed the ECOWAS region into an epicenter of warlords and conflict entrepreneurs, including the 1999 Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Security: the Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance of 2001, the 2008 ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework, and other key documents.
The ECOWAS multidimensional and integrated PSO structure entails the setting up of Mission Headquarters as well as Sector Headquarters in some cases. These structures would normally be manned by personnel from the Military, Police, Civilian, and Mission Support Components. The curriculum is currently being used in the 2nd edition of In-Mission Training of Staff Officers deployed to the ECOWAS Mission in the Gambia (ECOMIG).