ECOWAS partners Red Cross on laws for military operations

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has agreed on modalities to integrate humanitarian laws into the training and operations of the ECOWAS stand-by force.

The agencies reached the agreement yesterday in Abuja at the ICRC/ECOWAS Workshop on the integration of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) into the training and operations of the ECOWAS standby force (ESF).

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Mrs Halima Ahmed said the ever changing trends of the security environment especially in West Africa and the world at large necessitate the need for all persons involved in conduct of peace support operations to be fully abreast of the IHL and IHRL in the practice of their professions.

“Many a time, there has been series of reported cases, even among peacekeepers of violation of the tenets of IHL and IHR.

“Thus underscoring the need for personnel of the ESF from member states to be well grounded in IHL and IHRL so that this knowledge is further passed down to troops and amongst other personnel involved in Peace Supporting Operations,” Mrs. Ahmed represented by the Head of Mission, Planning and Management Centre (MPMC), Department of Peace Keeping and Personnel Security (DPKRS) Colonel Ollo Akin Pale said.

The President of the ICRC Mr. Peter Maurer said warfare has evolved considerably in the past few decades with belligerents leaving the battlefield which is their ‘traditional’ space, to conduct war around the ‘civilian space’, and that the proximity of combatants to non-combatants has resulted in larger casualties compared to the past.