WITH their backs to the wall, leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are prodding the United Nations to step up its intervention mission in war-torn Cote d’Ivoire to prevent a situation where the entire sub-region would be plunged into a humanitarian crisis of high proportion.
Meanwhile, the ECOWAS Commission has stressed the need to involve Non-State Actors (NSAs) including civil society, private sector and research organisations in efforts at attaining the Vision 20:2020 goal of member states.
The ECOWAS leaders made the call in Abuja at the ongoing 39th summit of the authority of the sub-region’s heads of state and government. Also, the women of Cote d’Ivoire who have formed a federation yesterday stormed Abuja, and at a special session with the leaders, urged immediate intervention in order to stop the daily carnage as well as prevent further killing of women and children.
Declaring the summit open yesterday, chairman of the authority, President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria told leaders and representatives of regional and global bodies: “We must not make the mistake of underestimating the threat that the Cote d’Ivoirien crisis poses to the sub-region. As the situation degenerates, the responsibility is on us to pass a resolution here to request the United Nations (UN) to take the Cote d’Ivoire situation a little more seriously.
“We must come to terms with the reality of the grave threat it poses to the peace and security of the entire region. We have an abiding duty to remain resolved and united on our principled stand on the crisis.”
But in what seems an adjustment of the earlier tough stand against the country’s defiant President Laurent Gbagbo, Jonathan, the outgoing ECOWAS chairman, stressed that it was “our hope that we are able to resolve the situation without the need for a resort to the force of arms.”
Nigeria had, earlier at another occasion, through its Foreign Affairs Minister and Chairman of ECOWAS Council of Ministers, Odein Ajumogobia, decried the contradictions that produce what was described as double standards in the way the western powers relate with countries of different regions of the world.
Ajumogobia stated that seven pregnant women and tens of others have been slaughtered in Cote d’Ivoire amid other atrocities while the world busied itself with Libya, Yemen and Japan.
The federation of women from Cote d’Ivoire (REPSFECO) told the ECOWAS heads of state yesterday that over 30 women have been killed in the renewed spate of violence.
Led by Nne Poiquel Salimata, they said: “We can no longer count the number of women and children who are being victimised daily. Women and children are dying every day. We have recorded over 30 so far. With the deep crisis in our country, it is time to intensify and bring the war to a close. The experience of Sierra Leone and Liberia has demonstrated to us that war in one country means war in the neighbouring countries. The war in Cote d’Ivoire takes us to the dark ages. We want help. Now the crisis in other parts of the world has overshadowed the problems of Cote d’Ivoire.”
The special representative of the UN Secretary-General in West Africa, Ambassador Said Djinit pledged that the global body, through its mission in Cote d’Ivoire
(UNOCCI) would continue to press its mandate and protect the people despite an increasingly violent environment.
The need to involve Non-State Actors (NSAs) in plans to attain the Vision 20:2020 was raised at a sensitization workshop and launching of the Nigerian Chapter of the survey on Non-State Actors for the ECOWAS Community Development Programme (CDP) in Lagos on Tuesday.
Speaking at the event which took place at the Lagos State Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LSCCI) in Ikeja, Chairman of the National Committee on ECOWAS Community Development Programme (CDP) at the National Planning Commission, Mr. Tunde Lawal, recalled that in June 2007 “the Authority of Heads of States and Government adopted the Vision 2020 of the ECOWAS which aims at moving from ‘ECOWAS of States’ to ‘ECOWAS of Peoples.”
To implement this vision, the Commission initiated the formulation of the CDP in May 2008, which is based on a participatory and inclusive approach by involving NSAs in both its formulation and future implementation. In February 2009 in Accra, Ghana, the representatives of NSAs requested an independent process that will enable their organisations to be efficient and make meaningful contribution to the CDP formulation.
In response to their request Lawal said in May 2010 “a road map was adopted in Abuja which recommends sensitisation exercise and a survey in each member state to identify the challenges of the NSAs and evaluate their potential contribution to the development of the region.”
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