EU gives US $2.03 million to ECOWAS for conflict prevention

West Africa's foremost economic grouping, ECOWAS, will get US $2.03 million from the European Union for a subregional mechanism for conflict prevention and resolution, a senior ECOWAS official told IRIN on Thursday. The agreement, signed in Abuja on Tuesday, will enable ECOWAS to maintain observers at its secretariat to keep track of potential and actual conflicts in the subregion. Observer offices will also be opened in Benin, Burkina Faso, The Gambia and Liberia. "I have lots of hope on the prevention aspect," Mohamed Diakite, personal assistant to the ECOWAS executive secretary, said. ECOWAS' plan includes a committee on conflict mediation and security. This body of nine-member states, to serve for two years, will take care of all armed conflicts and take measures to end them which might include deploying ECOMOG troops. Diakite said each of the 16 states in ECOWAS, the Economic community of West African States, will each have an army unit ready to deploy on peacekeeping duties. Each unit will receive identical equipment and training.