The ECOWAS Standby Force and West Africa’s Security: A Focus on The Exit of Sahel States from ECOWAS.
The study sets out to investigate how the ECOWAS Standby Force has been able to address security challenges in the Central Sahel region of West Africa. It also examined the political, economic and security implications of the exit of Sahel states from ECOWAS. Since not much has been written on the aforementioned subjects, therefore, this study seeks to fill these yawning knowledge gaps. The efforts of the ECOWAS Standby Force to restore peace and security in the region is hampered by a multitude of structural, institutional and political challenges, such as lack of a standing military force, logistical and institutional weaknesses, overreliance on external donors among others. We anchored our analysis on the theory of Neorealism also known as Structural Realism, articulated by Waltz (1979), and adopted the descriptive research design. The study employed the secondary/qualitative method of data collection, while content analysis was utilized for the analysis of data. Essentially, we found that the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) is a structure intended to function as a strategic alliance for mutual defence and cooperation between its members. Its emergence represents more than a security pact; it challenges the prevailing regional order led by ECOWAS. Its exit from ECOWAS marks a deep crisis for West African regionalism, and reshapes the geopolitical balance of the continent. The withdrawal has also fractured regional security cooperation, creating a precarious counterterrorism vacuum and destabilising borders across West Africa. Consequently, the study recommends among others, the establishment of a permanent ECOWAS Intelligence Fusion Center (EIFC) to serve as the hub for real-time intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination among member states.
Keywords: ECOWAS Standby Force, Alliance of Sahel States (AES), Sovereignty, Collective Security, Counterterrorism.
