CNS seeks stronger ECOWAS military cooperation

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By Kingsley Omonobi

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ABUJA: The Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Idi Abbas, has called for stronger regional military and maritime cooperation among African countries to tackle growing transnational security threats.

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Abbas made the call on Friday when the Chief of Staff, ECOWAS Standby Force, Brigadier General Sheikh Sulaiman Massaquoi, paid a courtesy visit to him at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja.

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The CNS said broader participation by African militaries in regional security initiatives, including the recently launched Combined Maritime Task Force–Gulf of Guinea (CMTF-GoG), would strengthen collective capacity to address common security challenges.

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A statement by the Director of Naval Information, Navy Captain Abiodun Folorunsho, quoted Abbas as highlighting Nigeria’s growing contribution to regional security through maritime operations and strategic sealift support.

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He cited the recent movement of Chinese-donated ECOWAS equipment to frontline countries, including Benin Republic and Sierra Leone, as an example of the importance of regional logistics and mobility in supporting collective security efforts.

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The equipment donated by China to ECOWAS comprises non-lethal field-support items intended to strengthen operational and humanitarian capacity.

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Abbas also recalled the Nigerian Navy’s strategic sealift of military equipment to Guinea-Bissau in 2022, when NNS KADA transported equipment for Nigerian troops deployed under the ECOWAS Stabilisation Support Mission.

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He said the operation demonstrated Nigeria’s capacity to provide maritime logistics support to regional peace and security initiatives.

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Against this backdrop, the CNS advocated greater synergy between the ECOWAS Standby Force and the CMTF-GoG, noting that security challenges increasingly cut across land and maritime domains and therefore require shared capabilities, intelligence and coordinated responses.

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He also encouraged more African countries to join the CMTF-GoG to build a broader regional security framework for addressing transnational maritime threats in the Gulf of Guinea.

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Abbas called for the strengthening of the ECOWAS Standby Force to ensure that it remained operationally ready and rapidly deployable against shared threats, including terrorism, insurgency and other forms of organised cross-border crime.

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He stressed that the increasingly interconnected nature of Africa’s security challenges made it difficult for individual countries to address them effectively in isolation.

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According to him, coordinated regional action based on shared intelligence, interoperable forces, joint operations and sustained political commitment would be critical to protecting Africa’s people, resources and development aspirations.

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Massaquoi, who conveyed greetings from the President of the ECOWAS Commission, acknowledged Nigeria’s contribution to regional security and expressed appreciation for its continued support for ECOWAS initiatives.

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He also underscored the need to strengthen the maritime component of the region’s security architecture.

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The engagement, according to the statement, reinforced the importance of regional interoperability and broader African participation in developing a responsive maritime security framework for the Gulf of Guinea and the wider West African sub-region.

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