The President of the ECOWAS Commission,
His Excellency Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo has urged all stakeholders to play
their part towards a speedy restoration of constitutional order and
democracy in Guinea-Bissau.
Receiving a delegation of Guinea-Bissau
Ministers and the Commander of the ECOWAS Mission in Guinea-Bissau, Col.
Gnibanga Barro, at the Commission on Tuesday 12th February 2013, the
President called for the urgent implementation of the roadmap for
political transition including the holding of free and fair, transparent
and credible elections in the country.
He also underscored the need to
fast-track the completion of the ECOWAS-supported defence and security
sector reform in the country, adding that the ECOWAS and other partners,
including the Africa Union, the EU, the UN and CPLP, Community of
Portuguese Language Speaking Countries, were solidly behind efforts to
end the crisis in Guinea-Bissau
ECOWAS and the four organizations are
expected to send a joint mission to the country this month to review the
situation on the ground.
President Ouédraogo told the visiting
delegation led by Guinea-Bissau’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation, Honourable Faustino Fudut Imbali that the
42nd Ordinary Summit of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and
Government taking place in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire 27-28 February 2013,
is expected to discuss the report of the joint mission to help chart a
way forward in Guinea-Bissau.
The Minister thanked ECOWAS and the other
partners for their continued support and pledged that the national
transitional government, civil society organizations and other
stakeholders would play their role to ensure the return of democracy and
constitutional order in Guinea-Bissau.
ECOMIB was deployed in Guinea-Bissau in
March 2012 under a Mission Agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding
on the implementation of the roadmap for the country’s defence and
security sector reform programme, signed between the country and ECOWAS,
when President Ouédraogo visited there in November 2012.
With over 600 soldiers and police
officers from Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Senegal, ECOMIB is charged with
securing Guinea-Bissau’s transitional arrangements, with the replacement
of 600 Angolan soldiers deployed in March 2011, pursuant to an
agreement between Angola and Guinea-Bissau.
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