The President of the Economic Community of West African States Commission (ECOWAS), Mr Omar Alieu Touray, has warned that terrorism is no longer restricted to the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin but has now spread across the entire West African region.
Mr Touray, made this disclosure while delivering the warning in New York during a United Nations Security Council session on strengthening regional cooperation against terrorism in West Africa and the Sahel.
He said early warning systems have recorded more than 450 terrorist attacks and over 1,900 deaths in 2025 alone.
Among key developments and concerns, Mr Touray noted is that extremist groups are also engaging in “economic warfare” by restricting fuel and crippling trade, which severely impacts regional economies and social development.
ECOWAS urged the United Nations and international partners to provide more support, emphasizing that fragmented efforts and a lack of trust hinder effective regional cooperation.
The situation, according to ECOWAS, is complicated by the withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger from ECOWAS, which has created a security vacuum and a lack of coordinated regional responses in the Central Sahel.
In response to the escalating crisis, ECOWAS is accelerating its counter-terrorism efforts by deploying its standby force and working to operationalize it, starting with 1,650 personnel and scaling up to 5,000, with support from regional and international partners.
ECOWAS leaders, including Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, have stressed that the plan requires substantial financial resources and are targeting $2.5bn in funding for counter-terrorism efforts.
Also, lawmakers in the ECOWAS Parliament have called for the endorsement of a dialogue with the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger) to reintegrate them into the regional security frameworks.
The regional body has called on the global community to stand with West Africa in its fight against a threat that targets all communities indiscriminately.