Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Stakeholders working to improve media practice and contributions to Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - The 2nd edition of the ECOWAS Under-23 Games opened in Accra, Ghana, Saturday, with Vice President, John Dramani Mahama calling on stakeholders to invest in sports to improve income generation and job creation in the region. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The UN Security Council is seeking detailed information on the plan by ECOWAS to send troops to Mali as part of regional initiatives aimed at resolving the crisis in the country, which has been divided into a rebel/Islamist-held north and a government-controlled south. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The 2nd edition of the ECOWAS Under-23 Games is billed to open in Accra, Ghana, Saturday, with participants competing in five sports - athletics, handball, volleyball, African wrestling and boxing, which is making its debut at the biennial regional sporting competition. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The ECOWAS Council of Ministers has recommended an increase in the number of Commissioners for the ECOWAS Commission to give Community Member States a sense of belonging. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Cote d’Ivoire’s Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan has called on ECOWAS to embrace the necessary transformation and modernization of management procedures to raise its competitiveness in a globalizing world. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The 68th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers is billed to hold in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, 11-12 June, an ECOWAS Commission statement made available to PANA said Sunday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS may send troops to Mali with or without the member state's consent in order to arrest the deteriorating situation in the northern part of the country, where separatist armed groups have continued to commit acts of rape, looting, robbery, killing and destruction of cultural sites. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS Ministers in charge of agriculture, trade and regional integration and their counterparts in Chad and Mauritania are to meet in Lomé, Togo, 5 June to discuss and agree lasting solutions to the recurring food crisis in the region. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has rejected attempts to impose Malian coup leader Capt. Amadou Sanogo as Interim President of the country. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has rejected the attempt to establish the ‘Islamic State of Azawad’ in the occupied northern territory of Mali, following the merger of the Tuareg-led rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar Dine on 26 May 2012. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has rejected attempts to imposed Malian coup leader Capt. Amadou Sanogo as Interim President of the country. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria will send 142 policemen to Guinea-Bissau as part of the ECOWAS mission, ECOMIB, being deployed to that country to support the restoration of constitutional rule, provide security for VIPs and guarantee the freedom of movement of humanitarian agencies in the country. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The ECOWAS Commission has presented 1,320 tons of grains valued at more than US$1 million to the Government of Cote d'Ivoire to alleviate the sufferings of 1 million people displaced during the country's post-electoral crisis of 2010. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has described Monday's attack on Mali's Interim President Dioncounda Traore as ''orchestrated'' and vowed to identify and sanction the perpetrators of the ''reprehensible'' act. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A four-day workshop to examine women’s role in the search for food sovereignty in West Africa through their involvement in the ECOWAS Regional Agriculture Investment Plan will begin Tuesday in Accra, Ghana, an ECOWAS Commission statement said. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - An ECOWAS delegation comprising Foreign Ministers of seven member states was billed to meet Monday (21May) with the UN Security Council team currently on a visit to West Africa, an ECOWAS Commission statement made available to PANA here said. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A joint ECOWAS, African Union (AU) and UN delegation arrived in Mali Sunday to warn the country's military junta to desist from meddling in its political process or face sanctions. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS Commission President Kadire Desire Ouedraogo has pledged to accelerate the progress of regional integration and consolidate the activities of ECOWAS institutions. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - An ECOWAS delegation was due on Mali Saturday to deliver a strong message from the regional bloc to the country's junta to stop disrupting the country's political transition or face the reinstatement of tough sanctions, PANA reported. Full text...

Luanda, Angola (PANA) - ECOWAS will soon take on the responsibility to restructure and properly organize the national army of Guinea Bissau following the withdrawal of the Angolan officials from that job. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Burkina Faso will become the first troop contributing nation to deploy to the ECOWAS Mission in Guinea-Bissau (ECOMIB) when the first batch of its 170-member Formed Police Unit (FPU) lands in Bissau Thursday, PANA has learnt. Full text...

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. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The troops to be deployed for the ECOWAS Mission in Guinea-Bissau (ECOMIB) are ready, but they will not be deployed until the equipment they will use during the mission are in place, PANA has learnt. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday in Abuja urged the Chiefs of Defence Staff Committee of ECOWAS member nations to ensure the sustenance of peace and security in the sub region. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's military and defence officials said on Monday the country is ready to contribute troops to the ECOWAS Mission to Guinea Bissau (ECOMIB). Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Peeved by the continuing moves by Mali's ex-junta to disrupt the country's political transition, ECOWAS on Monday warned the CNRDRE that represents the junta which seized power in the country in March to turn a new leaf or face the reinstatement of targeted sanctions. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The resettlement and reintegration of ECOWAS citizens displaced by conflicts is a priority critical to the region’s people-centred integration and development objective, ECOWAS Commission Vice President.Toga McIntosh said. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS Commission Vice President Toga Mcintosh has charged pioneer ECOWAS Volunteers deployed in Liberia to be worthy ambassadors by promoting the ideals of peace and development in their host communities. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - West African defence chiefs are due to meet in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja Monday to consider modalities for the deployment of troops to Guinea Bissau and Mali, two members states where soldiers have toppled elected governments in recent times. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - The Second ECOWAS Under-23 Games, earlier fixed for 2-8 June in Accra, Ghana, have been rescheduled for 16-22 June, the ECOWAS Commission said in press statement here, received by PANA Wednesday, citing logistics reasons. Full text...

Monrovia, Liberia (PANA) - The induction training for pioneer ECOWAS Volunteers, to be deployed in Liberia, kicked off in the capital, Monrovia, on Monday with the nation's Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs and Planning, Mr. Christopher Wallace, expressing immense gratitude to ECOWAS for assisting the country to end a civil war and accompanying it in capacity building to promote national development. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - To kick start its regional initiative to strengthen peace-building, national reconstruction and accelerated development in Member States, ECOWAS is organizing a week-long induction training in Monrovia, Liberia, from Monday, to prepare its pioneer volunteers, made of young specialists in various fields of human endeavour, for deployment in the West African nation.Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Senegal, which earlier pledged to include a field hospital in its contingent to the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) heading to Guinea-Bissau, has added military engineers to the team, according to Senegalese President Macky Sall. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should focus on its development objectives instead of managing political crises, its chairman, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, has said. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS has outlined a 12-month transitional programme that will culminate in the election of a President for Guinea-Bissau, where soldiers last month truncated a process to elect a replacement for President Bacai Sanha who died in January. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The deployment of ECOWAS troops to Mali to help the country regain sovereignty over its rebel-held northern part will now depend on the country's request for such deployment, according to a communique issued after an extraordinary summit of West African leaders in Dakar, Senegal, late Thursday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Ad-hoc Committee monitoring the implementation of ECOWAS Regional Culture Development and Integration Programme has recommended that a study on the contributions of culture to the economy of Member States and the region be conducted in the first quarter of 2013. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - For the second time in as many weeks, ECOWAS is to hold an extraordinary summit on the situation in two of its member states - Guinea-Bissau and Mali - which are reeling from the effects of military coups that toppled the constitutional order in both nations. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS has imposed diplomatic, economic and financial sanctions on Guinea Bissau after the 29 April meeting in Banjul, The Gambia, between the foreign ministers of the regional Contact Group and the country's political stakeholders failed to reach a consensual arrangement to return the country to constitutional rule within 12 months. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has welcomed the release of Guinea-Bissau's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior and Interim President Raimundo Pereira by the country's Military Command, which arrested and detained them after the 12 April coup in the country. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The seven-member ECOWAS Contact Group on Guinea-Bissau is meeting in Banjul, capital of The Gambia, Sunday to discuss the next steps in the resolution of the current crisis in the country (Guinea-Bissau). Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS and Venezuela have agreed to take measures to implement their 2009 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) towards the elimination of malaria in West Africa, the West African regional bloc said in a statement here Friday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - West African leaders who met at an extra-ordinary summit in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, Thursday ordered the immediate deployment of a contingent of the ECOWAS Standby Force to Guinea-Bissau, where soldiers seized power 12 April and have set up a so-called National Transitional Council. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS leaders Thursday ordered the immediate deployment of regional troops to Mali to help the country regain control of its northern region now being held by Tuareg rebels and their Islamist allies. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Regional experts in animal diseases have ended a five-day meeting in Accra, Ghana, with wide-ranging recommendations, including the call for the setting up of an emergency fund at country level for the management of health crises, including trans-boundary animal diseases, as part of efforts to promote the production of quality foods and exports in the ECOWAS region. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS leaders are meeting at an extra-ordinary summit in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Thursday, on the political crises in Guinea-Bissau and Mali. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, will Thursday attend an Extra-Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, a presidency statement issued here said. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS and the Republic of Cuba have agreed new measures to revive their collaboration towards the elimination of malaria in West Africa by 2015 through a control and elimination programme. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - West African agriculture stakeholders have intensified measures to improve the seasonal movement of livestock (transhumance) in order to boost the economies of ECOWAS Member States. Full text...