By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The days of cross border hostilities among Mango River Union states are over, with militaries chiefs from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast sharing intelligence and in constant communication.
Now, Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces of the four MRU countries have begun discussions aimed at jointly patrolling their boundaries in the midst of increase of terrorism in the West African region.
Civil war that first started in Liberia in 1989, but ended in 2003, sparked the destabilization of the sub-region after war started in neigbouring Sierra Leone, with attending armed conflicts in Ivory Coast and Guinea.
This was disclosed during a joint press conference shortly after a brief meeting held in Monrovia on the sideline of Liberia’s Armed Forces Day on Tuesday, February 11, 2020. The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Ivory Coast , Lt Gen. Lassina Dounbia disclosed that as part of the preparation for strengthening of ties among the militaries in the MRU region, they have agreed to post military liaison in each member state of the MRU
Lt. Gen. Dounbia pointed out that discussion is line with the ECOWAS agreement held in Accra, Ghana, to establish a joint force to maintain security, combat or curb terrorism in the region.
According to him, the Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces countries in the MRU have begun putting together a document for the approval of the heads of states and commanders in chiefs in these endeavor.
For his part, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Sierra Leone, Lt Gen. Brima Sasey said that each member state of ECOWAS and MRU has their respective plan but they are discussing purposely to combine their efforts.
According to him, the Heads of State will be duly informed of every stage of the discussion has reached a conclusive stage.
Lt. Gen Sasey noted that the first step is to nail the butt of the Islamist terrorists in the Sahel in order to not to allow them to spread down to the other countries.
“We also have individual plan by member countries in the prevention of the spread of terrorism to the rest of the West African reason.”
“It is based on this background that we are establishing a military task force to assist in defense any country that may come under attack and the joint military cooperation of the MRU states is in the same direction.”
Also speaking, the Director of Operations at the Guinean Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Namory Troare, who represented Lt Gen. Namory Traore, the Chief of Staff of the Guinean army, disclosed that the discussion has received the blessing of the Guinean President , Professor Alpha Conte
According to him, Presidents George Weah and Conte have the same vision on border security, information sharing and training among the militaries in the region.
“This is what we military personnel are trying to implement on the field and the relationship between the militaries among the MRU countries can be traced to the history.”
He assured his counterparts that Guinean Armed Forces will continue to work with armies of countries in the MRU in the maintenance of peace and stability in the region
Making remarks at the press conference, AFL Chief of staff, Major General Prince Johnson, on behalf of President Weah and AFL Commander in Chief , welcomed his colleagues to Liberia.
He noted that the discussion by the four senior military officers from the MRU countries is a milestone for the region because “we do not want repeat the mistake that were made by our predecessors.”
“We the military chiefs in the MRU should not make the mistake which was experienced by Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast when wars were waged in our countries.”
“Those day,” Maj. Gen. Johnson went on, “we were all suspicious of one another and we never had the opportunity to meet like this to share ideas, train and discuss the possibility of regional security”
“We have a memorandum of understanding will Ivory Coast to do joint border patrols, we also have similar agreement with Sierra Leone and we are about to complete an MOU with Guinea on similar agreement.”
“This is an indication that we the militaries of the MRU countries are working together and we have a relationship when anything happen in any of the countries we can just call and consult with them in approval of the CIC.”
“With the efforts of ECOWAS Chiefs of Defense Staff, we have cemented the relationships among our armies in the MRU region.” We are currently discussing simultaneous border patrols among the four members’ countries of the MRU region.”