ECOWAS Stabilisation Force

Abubakar Hashim/ Freetown

The much expected ECOWAS stabilisation force headquarters will be ready in Sierra Leone in January 2024, for regional peace keeping operations in conflict zones. This was revealed today by the country’s Minister of Foreign affairs, Timothy Kabbah.

Stating further, the force, which will be located at the old Lungi International Airport, will not be an intervention force, but a stabilisation and peacekeeping force, to promote and sustain democracy in the region .

Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Timothy Kabbah

Already, ECOWAS has a similar mission in The Gambia and Guinea Bissau.

Sierra Leone, effective January, 2024, will be the new hub and headquarter of the region’s peacekeeping force.

ECOWAS

By this move, all military forces in the ECOWAS countries remain independent of the ECOWAS stabilisation force and will work in synergy to sustain democracy in the region.

As it is not an intervention force, it will not interfere with the operations of military operations in the respective ECOWAS countries, but acts as a stabilisation force in every country in the ECOWAS region.

The hub at Lungi airport has been on the drawing board since the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Now that will officially come into operations in January 2024, it is expected that the sudden rise in the wave of coups and insecurity will be minimised in the region, coupled with good governance and sound leadership, as remarked by the ECOWAS chairman, President Bola Tinubu in Abuja at the 64th ECOWAS summit few days ago.