Talks at the 46th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government will hugely focus on the current political and security situation in the sub-region.
The ECOWAS Summit will hold on Monday in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and other participating Heads of State and Government of the regional body will also receive a briefing on recent developments in Burkina Faso and review the report of the 33rd Meeting of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council.
The increasing attacks of a terrorist group, Boko Haram, on villages, towns, churches, mosques, schools and other public places are reasons for the focus of talks at the ECOWAS Summit on insecurity, as it poses a threat to the region with most countries’ borders said to be porous.
Nigerian military personnel have continued to undertake counter terrorism operations in the north-east region but the terrorist group has not retreated.
A statement by a spokesman for President Jonathan, Reuben Abati, said the ECOWAS summit will also focus on the consideration and adoption of the 2014 annual report of the President of the ECOWAS Commission, the consideration and adoption of the report of the 73rd Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers and the election of the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government for next year.
President Jonathan, the current Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President John Mahama of Ghana, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Mr Mohammed Ibn Chambas will present statements to the one-day summit before it goes into a closed-door session.
Some of the participating Heads of State and Government have already arrived in Abuja ahead of the opening of the summit on Monday.
A statement on the summit’s decisions is expected at the conclusion of their deliberations.
