The Sierra Leone Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Economic Community of West African States Council of Ministers, Timothy Kabba, has called for a renewed commitment to democracy, peace, and regional stability.
Kabba made this call while closing the two-day 55th Session of the Mediation and Security Council at the ministerial level in Abuja on Wednesday, offering a wide-ranging reflection on the growing threats facing West Africa.
Addressing foreign ministers, commissioners, ambassadors and diplomats, Kabba said the region had spent two days in “intensive deliberations on the issues that are affecting our community, the political, democratic, and security situation of our region.”
The minister warned that West Africa is not insulated from the rising geopolitical tensions among global powers.
“Our region is not an exclusion from the vibrations that emanate from the contestation of the powers of the world in a rather multipolar world,” he said, noting that “ageing powers, vintage ones, and emerging ones are all beating their ways to the African continent.”
Kabba pointed to Africa’s long history of bearing the pressures of global transformation, referencing the transatlantic slave trade and the exploitation that accompanied the advent of gunpowder.
He cautioned that the technological age, including artificial intelligence, poses new risks.
He cited climate change as an emerging source of insecurity, adding that the region now faces threats “even more trenchant and even more devastating” than longstanding challenges like poverty and disease. “Climate change and climate-induced farming crises,” he said, “are exacerbating instability across the subregion.”
Despite concerns that multilateral institutions worldwide are “falling apart,” Kabba stressed that ECOWAS remains a vital expression of shared culture, identity and history.
Kabba raised alarm over recent unconstitutional takeovers in the region, saying they often stem from failures in democratic governance.
“Our population, our people and our society become so disgruntled that sometimes it almost feels like there’s legitimacy in the challenges and opposition against democracy,” he said.
He urged member states to “assess ourselves as a community” and recommit to constitutional rule and the rule of law.
