Gambian President urges ECOWAS to extend peacekeeping mission to 2021
Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - Gambian President Adama Barrow has pleaded with his colleagues at Economic Community of Est African States (ECOWAS) to extend the regional peacekeeping mission in his country to 2021.
This is to support the transition process and give way for the Third Republic to contribute effectively to regional commitments.
He made the plea at the 56th session of the ECOWAS summit on Saturday in Abuja, Nigeria.
“I renew my government’s commitment to making The Gambia a regional model of a peacefully transformed nation from a dictatorship into a true democracy,” President Barrow said in a statement made available to PANA on Sunday.
The mandate of the ECOWAS Mission in Gambia (ECOMIG) ends in March 2020.
President Barrow commended partners for supporting and sustaining ECOMIG saying that it is contributing immensely to the stability in the country and the protection of its fragile democracy.
He noted that in spite of the progress made towards sustainable regional integration, the community continues to face threats to peace and security within the sub-region.
“Issues of social discrimination, irregular migration, terrorist attacks, land conflicts and environmental concerns, for example, pose a big challenge to us.”
He recalled that recently, scores of Gambian youths lost their lives at sea due to irregular migration.
He commended President Muhamed Ould Ghazouani, his Government and the people of Mauritania for rescuing some of those migrants and recovering and burying the bodies of the dead.
He joined his colleagues to condemn all the recent terrorist attacks in the region - Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
-0- PANA MSS/MA 22Dec2019
