By John Ikani
The Economic Community for the Development of West African States (ECOWAS) will send a stabilisation force to Guinea-Bissau following the Monday ‘failed coup attempt’, the bloc has announced.
The Government of Guinea-Bissau on Wednesday confirmed 11 people died during a failed coup attempt that took place in the country on Tuesday.
ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said at a press briefing that the regional bloc has decided during an extraordinary session held in Accra, Ghana on Thursday to offer military support to Guinea-Bissau to secure its democracy and sustain peace and security in the country.
“This is something that we will do very rapidly to ensure that this type of attempt of takeover power by force does not take place,” said Kassi Brou.
According to the ECOWAS communiqué, the mission to be deployed to Guinea-Bissau, composed of military and police, will be deployed from The Gambia, where a stationary force of the organisation has been located since the elections that removed Yaya Jammeh from power in 2017.
The last ECOWAS stabilisation mission in Guinea-Bissau was deployed between 2012 and 2020, and the troops left the country after President Umaro Sissoco Embaló was inaugurated. At the time, President Embaló said he did not need the “foreign force” and that he trusted the country´s army.
Apart from the situation in Guinea Bissau, the meeting also assessed the situation in Burkina Faso, Guinea-Conakry and Mali.
