OUAGADOUGOU, Sept. 15 ( Xinhua) -- The special Summit of the Economic community of west African States ( Ecowas) vowed on Saturday in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to mobilize one billion U.S. dollars to face the escalating terrorism in the region.
" The conference adopted a plan of action and of one billion U.S. dollars resource mobilization for the fight against terrorism", said Mahamadou Issoufou, the president of Niger, also acting president of the Ecowas conference of heads of State and government.
"We must set as political objectives the preservation of the territorial integrity of our our States, of republican democratic institutions, the protection of all citizens as well as of their assets", Issoufou also said.
The financial package will be used to equip national defence and multinational forces, and to strengthen intelligence services in the region, as terrorism scaled up in the G5 Sahel countries ( Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, Mali) and now seriously threatens the coastal countries.
The Ouagadougou Summit gathered Ecowas heads of States, among which those of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Liberia, Senegal, Togo.
It was extended to Mauritania, Chad and Cameroon, countries that are torn by jihadist attacks in west and central Africa.
The chairman of Ecowas Commission, Jean-Claude Brou, said about 2,200 terrorist attacks were registered over the last four years in the region, causing 11,500 dead and several millions of displaced persons.
