The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has begun the final move to put a standby force in place to combat insecurity in West Africa with the commencement of deliberations on the training policy to be adopted for the force.
The ECOWAS standby force which was activated to address the rising insecurity in the sub-region is yet to be fully active, though it has already established a depot for deployment of soldiers for peace support operations.
The regional force, which is expected to comprise 5,000 troops, is part of a broader regional security strategy to also curb terrorism and cross-border crimes.