News:
Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe J.
March 26, 2023
Chairman of the Committee on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM); of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. has said on conflict resolution the West African sub-region has a success story to share with the rest of the world.
According to him he is delighted that ahead of the five days high level ECOWAS training and experience sharing in the Hague Netherlands from March 27 to 31, 2023 on exploring negotiation and mediation as instrument for conflict resolution, “We have our own experience we can share about the West Africa sub-region we have had situations in our region that through dialogue we have been able to mediate, ECOMOG is an example of some the things that we have achieved over the years”.
In a telephone interview he recounted that the sub-region has troops in Guinea Bissau and in the Gambia, as well as continuous dialogue in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, “as well do not forget Europe NATO does have an ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia dialogue should have been a proper way to go.
But they could not reach a dialogue and there has been full scale war that has lasted over a year, despite the fact that the sub-region has its own ups and downs, likewise Europe, and the sub-region would be sharing their own views and experience on some of the things that they have been able to work on over the years.
He further pointed out that there has been tension in the West Africa sub-region over the years, there has been problem with the close of the border between Benin and Nigeria, likewise tension within member states.
“We have been able to resolve them and even in the just ended Nigerian general elections, there are aggrieved parties we were able to speak to them that the way out is going through the legal process”.
Leader of the Liberian delegation to the Community Parliament believes the sub-region has done a lot with a lot of experience to share to the rest of the World, and something to learn from the upcoming training on Monday, March 27, 2023 and build upon their short comings.
The aim of the programme is to further strengthen negotiation and mediation skills and to facilitate the exchange of experiences of representatives from the ECOWAS Commission, Member States and Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com