NewsWest AfricaTerrorists Displace 5.5 Million Persons In West Africa

No fewer than 5.5 million people had been displaced by terrorists in the West African region in four and a half years.

Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, the outgoing President of the ECOWAS Commission,  who disclosed this during the handover ceremony to the new president, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, also said14,500 persons have been killed within the period.

According to him, the commission had reached out to provide assistance to many of the affected people and victims of natural disasters.

 “First of all, the deterioration of the security situation has caused havoc, not only in the Sahel area, affecting Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and the North East of Nigeria, but it soon expanded to the coastal zone, hitting Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Togo.

“Terrorist attacks and herds of bandits plunged these countries into mourning, with close to 14,500 dead in four and a half years, threatening the peace of rural population, and forcing people to seek shelter away from their home areas,” Brou said.

He urged community citizens to remain united and to extend their support to the incoming management.

While taking over the mantle of leadership, Touray promised a renewed commitment to work diligently for the welfare of the community.

He called on member countries to continue supporting the commission by ensuring the full payment of the community levy and full implementation of ECOWAS protocols.

Touray thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for playing a generous host to the commission and other institutions of ECOWAS and providing leadership to ECOWAS’ integration and peacebuilding efforts.

Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Mr Zubairu Dada, assured the incoming president that Nigeria was ready to work with him and give his team every support to ensure that ECOWAS consolidates its position as the best performing regional economic commission in the entire continent

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Hassan Umar Shallpella (Regional Correspondent)

Veteran journalist and recipient of A.B.C Yola, Reporter of the Year Award (1997), Hassan Umar Shallpella, works with WAP as a Regional Correspondence. He was trained at Institute of Mass Communication and Technology Jos and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Training School Lagos.He was a News desk Editor and a Correspondent at the Punch newspaper and till 2019, was the Deputy Editor ofThe Scope newspaper.

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