ECOWAS Mediation, Security Council to meet in Abidjan

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Ministers of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council (MSC) will hold an emergency meeting on Saturday in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, to review the security situation in Guinea Bissau and Mali, an ECOWAS Commission statement made available to PANA here Thursday said.

Coming after the just-ended regional defence chiefs meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, the meeting, which will be attended by Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence, will be updated on the political and security situation in Guinea Bissau and Mali by Commission President Kadre Desire Ouedraogo.

The Chairman of the Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff will present the report of the Committee’s meeting of 14 May held in Abuja, while Burkina Faso’s Minister of Foreign Affairs will brief the ministers on behalf of President Blaise Compaore on the mediation efforts in Mali.

The opening of the meeting will also be addressed by Cote d’Ivoire’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Kablan Duncan, the current Chairman of the Council of Cote d’Ivoire, while his Nigerian counterpart will also brief the meeting on the current status of discussions with the stakeholders in Guinea Bissau to resolve the political crisis in that country.

Nigeria was named to head a regional contact group to follow up on the region’s response to the crisis after the 26 extraordinary summit of ECOWAS leaders in Abidjan.

Regional leaders set up the Contact Group on Guinea Bissau to follow up and coordinate implementation of the region’s decisions on Mali, in the wake of the March 2012 military coup in the country and the separatist rebellion in the north.

Among other decisions, the meeting of regional defence chiefs agreed that the deployment of troops to Guinea-Bissau will commence on Friday.
-0- PANA SEG 17May2012