The Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is currently meeting in Bissau, Guinea Bissau.
The Defence Chiefs will be discussing and considering the security situation in the region and other issues, the regional body said in a statement shared with reporters.
ECOWAS Heads of Operations and Chiefs of Intelligence have already concluded talks, which were held December 17 and 18, 2022 respectively.
While instability has been a recurring theme in the Sahel and West Africa, violent events have become more frequent and deadly in recent years, the United Nations Security Council said in a review.
There has been a string of military takeovers in Africa in the last two years. Since August 2020, power has changed hands unconstitutionally six times in five countries: Burkina Faso (January 2022), Sudan (October 2021), Guinea (September 2021), Chad (April 2021), and Mali (August 2020 and May 2021). Two other African countries saw thwarted coup attempts in this period, Niger in March 2021 and Guinea-Bissau in January 2022, the latter of which led to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deploying a force to the country.
