The ECOWAS Special Envoy on Terrorism, Ambassador Baba Kamara, has held discussions with the head of Ghana’s national security about the increasing rates of terrorism within West Africa.

The discussion also covered how member states and partners can leverage collaboration to effectively respond to the threats and secure the internal and external integrity of the countries.

Ambassador Kamara, who is a former Ghanaian National Security Coordinator, held discussions with the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, and a team of officers, including the Chief Director of the Ministry of National Security, Sena Siaw-Boateng, and the Coordinator of the National  Counter Terrorism Fusion Centre, Brig. Gen. Timothy Ba-Taa-Banah.

The ECOWAS Special Envoy on Terrorism’s mission to Accra forms part of a wider assignment to visit coastal states within the sub-region to assess their individual terrorist threat profiles.

Source

A source familiar with the mission but who is not authorised to speak said the exercise formed part of the Special Envoy’s outreach programme to coastal states to understand the terrorism threat level of each country to assess measures implemented to either prevent or address the threats.

It is also to ascertain the level of assistance, especially from ECOWAS, required by the individual countries to mitigate the threat and also explore areas where ECOWAS can facilitate cooperation among countries to address the threat of terrorism.

The Special Envoy was accompanied by the Senior Technical Advisor, Inusah Ziblim; the Technical Advisor, Thomas Kpegah; the Head of ECOWAS Regional Security, Colonel (Rtd) Abdourahmane Dieng, and the Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs of ECOWAS, Dr Sinkiti Ugbe.

First visit

In the middle of this year, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Alieu Touray, in a visit to Ghana’s Presidency, Jubilee House, indicated that the commission was dispatching its Special Envoy for Counter Terrorism, Ambassador Baba Kamara, to terrorism stricken areas in the sub-region.

It is believed that Baba Kamara, a former Ghanaian National Security Advisor’s visit to these countries, is to ascertain at first hand issues pertaining to terrorism and interact with officials and other stakeholders.

President Touray announced this when he led a three-man ECOWAS Commission delegation to brief President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo about the progress made so far on counter-terrorism activities.

President Akufo-Addo welcomed the delegation and said the choice of Baba Kamara as the Special Envoy for Counter Terrorism would make it easier for him to work with him.

He called for the need for a meeting among all heads of state to clarify the parameters for drawing the counterterrorism strategy, adding that since there was consensus among member states to fight terrorism, there should not be procrastination.

President Akufo-Addo has since asked the ECOWAS Commission to organise a special summit for the heads of state to meet and agree on the modalities.