By Augustine Octavius,augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The West African regional organization, ECOWAS, and the Mano River Union have begun the development of a sub regional strategy aimed at addressing the threat of cross border movement of armed groups, weapons and illicit trafficking.
ECOWAS Ambassador Babaunde Ajisomo added that a steering committee, comprising of representatives of MRU and ECOWAS has also been setup to develop a security strategy for cross border security and implement of the plan .
Ambassador Ajisomo made the disclosure when he delivered the keynote speech marking the opening of a three-day joint action planning meeting of the Mano River Union and United Nations Development Program in Monrovia recently.
According to Ambassador Ajisomo, the MRU needs to focus on the member-state governments in order to strengthen joint border security and establish confidence building unit at the various boundaries.
The ECOWAS Ambassador also encouraged the MRU to take steps aimed at consolidation democracy and increase the roles of women in political activities.
Ambassador Ajisomo stressed the need for member-states of the MRU to develop a good electoral system by the establishment of a computerized voter registration roll in order to avoid conflict in the region.
The ECOWAS diplomat pointed out that the regional electoral body ECONET will ready to provide its technical advices especially in helping member-states of the MRU in cleaning their voter registration rolls ; adding : “ we want for them to factor in working with electoral bodies so as the maintain credibility and confidence of all sides of the political arena.”
“We are stressing this pointed because we heard of trucking or vote buying as it is termed in some countries in the region.”
“We also need to open avenues for our women and youths to fully participate in our political activities without threats of intimidations,” said the ECOWAS envoy.
For his part, the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations has called on the Mano River Union to begin re-engaging the respective governments of MRU to strengthen collaboration among security apparatus along their common borders.
Kingsley Amaning said this is necessary because of the increase in terrorism in the West African region and the emergence of the diseases in other parts of the world.
The UN Resident Coordinator appealed to delegates to work very hard in order to achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030.
In remarks, the Secretary General of the Mano River Union, Madina Wesseh, disclosed that the MRU secretariat has developed a five-year strategic plan and it is currently being validated by the planning committees of the member states.
She added that as soon as the validation process is completed, the plan will forwarded to the committee of Heads of States of MRU countries for their final approval for implementation.
The meeting was graced by representatives from the European Union, the Swedish Embassy, the United Nations Sahel Office, the ECOWAS and government of Liberia.