By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today on how to strengthen their partnership in preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism in the region.
The MoU was signed by Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, President of the ECOWAS Commission, and Mr. Vladimir Voronkov, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism, during a bilateral meeting at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week.
The MoU is a framework for cooperation between both entities covering a five years on a range of security and counter-terrorism initiatives.
The MoU contains preventative efforts to counter terrorist travel, financing, access to weapons and misuse of information and communications technologies; border security and management; prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration (PRR), and the delivery of counter-terrorism training programmes in Africa.
The agreement also makes provisions for UNOCT support to ECOWAS and its Member States in the implementation of the ECOWAS 2020-2024 Action Plan on Eradicating Terrorism.
Under-Secretary-General Voronkov who welcomed the agreement noted that the comprehensive cooperation framework for the next 5 years.
Dr. Touray expressed ECOWAS commitment to collaborate with the UN through UNOCT to address the multifaceted dimensions of terrorism, including the root causes such as youth empowerment, the fight against human rights violations and other governance deficits.
The ECOWAS and UNOCT agreement will kick start a joint plan of action to put the agreement into practice, building on existing coordination platforms, with the AU-UN Technical Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and PCVE.
It will also explore opportunities to develop and undertake joint or collaborative activities with the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact.
