ECOWAS to Mediate Benin - Burkina Fasso Border Dispute

ECOWAS intervenes in Benin-Burkina Faso border dispute

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has intervened in the prevailing border dispute between Benin Republic and Burkina Faso, ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohammed Ibn Chambas said in Abuja Monday.
Chambas told newsmen in the Nigerian capital Abuja that he had contacted foreign ministers of the two countries with a view to resolving the feud.

"We have appealed to them to exercise maximum restraint and to avoid any actions likely to mar the cordial relationship between them," he said.

He recalled the satisfactory manner Benin and Niger Republics resolved their border dispute and urged that the current one be tackled within international norms and within the framework of the ECOWAS community.

The dispute which has caused tension in the two countries was sparked off by the alleged unilateral closure of the common border by Benin Republic.

Two villages are involved in the dispute along the border with Benin which accuses Burkina Faso of moving boundary pillars.

The Rest @ People's Daily Online

West Africa builds Plan to stop drug smuggling

Tue 11 Sep 2007, 16:50 GMT
By Alistair Thomson

DAKAR, Sept 11 (Reuters) - West Africa is drawing up a plan to fight drug trafficking, in particular of Latin American cocaine and Asian heroin being smuggled to lucrative markets in Europe, a regional crime fighter said on Tuesday.

Abdullahi Shehu, who heads West Africa's programme against money laundering, received an additional mandate last month from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to fight drugs cartels, whose grip on the region appears to be growing.

"We don't want to reinvent the wheel, but we want to make a practical difference within the shortest time," Shehu said during a meeting in Senegal where experts were drawing up the plan to submit to leaders of the 15 ECOWAS members in December.

"They want something long-term, but they are also concerned about the short term," Shehu told reporters. "This will consist of a plan for one year ... reducing the traffic of cocaine in particular into the region, while other goals are ongoing."

Record drug seizures in recent months have exposed networks using West Africa's poorly policed shorelines and vast empty deserts to smuggle hard drugs into Europe.

The Rest @ Reuters Africa