Liberia to host ECOWAS Chiefs of Staffs

The Government of Liberia hosts the 37th Ordinary Session of Chiefs of Defense Staffs of the Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS in Monrovia next week, the first in history.

Briefing reporters here Thursday, 31 August at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism on Capitol Hill, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Liberia, Major/ General G. Daniel Ziankahn, says the three-day session is slated for September 6 – 8, 2017at the Boulevard Palace Hotel in Sinkor, Monrovia. 

He discloses that a total of 15 Chiefs of Defense Staffs from the subregion are expected to attend. General Ziankahn, who currently chairs the regional military bloc, says during the session, he will turn over the chairmanship to the Chief of Defense Staff of Togo.

Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe, is the current chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He assumed the rotational post from President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf during the 51st ECOWAS Summit of Heads of State held for the first time in Liberia on June 4, 2017.

However, General Ziankhan notes that issues to be discussed in the impending meeting are the ECOWAS standby force, the concept of EOWAS operation in Guinea Bissau, the status of ECOWAS mission in The Gambia, the Multi-national Maritime Coordination Center operations in Benin, among others.

Meanwhile, the Liberian chief of staff clarifies that the AFL personnel, who was admitted at the St. Joseph’s Catholic hospital as a result of wound he sustained from a rocket attack while on peace mission in Mali, has been flown to India for further treatment, and not being abandoned as it is being speculated.

By Ethel A. Tweh-Editing by Jonathan Browne