Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, the outgoing Chairman of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, has expressed worry over the slow pace of the force, which is supposed to be the sub-region’s counterterrorism force.
Addressing the Summit of West African leaders at the 67th ECOWAS Heads of State and Government in Abuja, Nigeria, on Sunday, President Tinubu charged his colleagues on the need to operationalize the ECOWAS Standby Force as a potent tool to crush terrorism in the sub-region.
“We must act decisively to operationalize the ECOWAS Standby Force in the fight against terrorism to serve as an instrument for peace and stability for our region,” he said.
Tinubu said that Nigeria would continue to be committed to the peace, integration, and economic prosperity of the subregion.
According to him, no nation can address the challenges of terrorism and external security threats in the sub-region alone, and he stressed the need to translate the ECOWAS Standby Force from concept to reality to serve as a regional counter-terrorism force.
Speaking on his achievements during his two-term tenure as the chairman of ECOWAS, Tinubu expressed satisfaction that under his leadership, the ECOWAS military logistics depot in Lungi, Sierra Leone, was completed.
“I am pleased to note that under my authority, the ECOWAS military logistics depot in Lungi, Sierra Leone, has been completed. The depot will play a critical role in providing equipment or other logistics to forces deployed by ECOWAS,” he said.
The reports recalled that a wave of attacks in Benin and Nigeria has recently tested the region, with Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, and ISWAP terrorists exploiting strained relationships between members of the ECOWAS and Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, who withdrew from the 15-member regional bloc at the beginning of 2025.
The reports added that the remaining 12 members of ECOWAS are Benin Republic, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Togo, and Nigeria.
In March, the Niger Republic withdrew from a joint task force it had formed with Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad to combat jihadists around Lake Chad—disrupting cross-border patrols and intelligence sharing.
However, the Global Terrorism Index said that the Sahel region was the world epicenter for extremist violence in 2024, accounting for half of all extremism-related deaths.
President Tinubu later handed over the chairmanship of ECOWAS to the President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio.
