German government pledges $85 million to strengthen ECOWAS peacebuilding, development efforts

The German government, through its Development Ministry, said it is donating $85.9 million US to the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, to aid its peacebuilding and economic development efforts.

The German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, disclosed this while meeting with an ECOWAS delegation in Berlin on Friday.

Berlin reiterated its willingness to support the region in the face of the recent crises that led to repeated coups.

While praising ECOWAS for working hard on conflict mediation and prevention, the German official added that solutions to the crises in the West African sub-region must come from its stakeholders.

“Solutions to the crises in West Africa must come from the region. ECOWAS is a key player in this, not only actively mediating in crises, but also doing a lot for crisis prevention,” she said.

The continent of Africa was recently plagued by military interventions and the latest one in Gabon raised the number of countries under military regime to eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020.

Military interventions in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger have undermined democratic progress in recent years.

Recall that the West African bloc recently said it has activated its standby force to evict the coup plotters in Niger from the presidential palace and return Mohamed Bazoum, who has been detained since his overthrow on July 26.

The ECOWAS military chiefs in a summit in Ghana also said they had agreed on an unannounced day to move against the coup plotters.