The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has unveiled a major security intervention with the planned deployment of 1,650 personnel as part of a revitalised regional standby force to tackle the fast-spreading terrorist threat across West Africa.
The announcement was made by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Alieu Omar Touray, during a high-level briefing to the United Nations Security Council in New York. The session focused on strengthening global and regional collaboration in the fight against terrorism in West Africa and the Sahel.
Dr. Touray warned that the security landscape in the region has deteriorated at an alarming rate, with 450 terrorist attacks and nearly 2,000 recorded deaths in 2025 alone. Once heavily concentrated in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, extremist violence has now spilled over into the broader West African subregion, threatening both national and regional stability.
According to him, violent extremist groups have adopted new strategies, including what he described as “economic warfare.” He said these groups are deliberately targeting fuel supplies, attacking critical infrastructure, disrupting trade corridors, and crippling local economies to weaken state authority and entrench their operations.
“To confront the escalating violence, ECOWAS is fast-tracking the deployment of its standby force, beginning with 1,650 troops,” Dr. Touray announced. “The plan is to scale this up to 5,000 personnel through additional contributions from member states and strengthened support from international partners.”
Despite the ambitious deployment plan, Dr. Touray highlighted several structural challenges weakening the regional response. These include fragmented national counterterrorism strategies, limited intelligence-sharing, mistrust among neighbouring states, and inadequate operational coordination.
He appealed to the UN Security Council for predictable, sustainable funding and urged the global community to support efforts aimed at rebuilding trust, enhancing joint security mechanisms, and improving coordination between West African governments.
Dr. Touray emphasized that defeating the growing insurgency will not depend solely on military intervention, but on unified political commitment, stronger regional cooperation, and deeper international partnerships.
He warned that without urgent and coordinated action, the security crisis risks evolving beyond the region’s current capacity to contain it, putting West Africa’s stability and development at unprecedented risk.
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