Special Representative of the Secretary-General Mohammed Ibn Chambas, who is also the head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel, delivered his briefing on the security situation in the Sahel and West Africa on 11 January to the UN Security Council. “The security situation remains a grave concern,” he said. Read on

Following the first female president of Africa, Liberia will now have the first president who has been an international football star. George Weah won the country’s presidential election run-off on 26 December 2017 with 61.5% of the vote beating his rival, the outgoing Vice-President Joseph Boakai, who got 38.5% of the vote. Read on

ECOWAS Commission President Alain Marcel de Souza met with the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, in New York on 26 September. Their meeting focused on the security situation in West Africa, notably the political crisis in Guinea-Bissau, on-going tensions in Togo and the unstable situation in northern Mali. Read on

The fourth high-level meeting on “Peaceful transhumance and livestock mobility in the Sahel and West African coastal countries” was held by ECOWAS from 27-29 September 2017 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Livestock ministers from across the region endorsed the funding modalities to establish the Regional Investment Programme for Livestock Development in Coastal Countries (PRIDEC), targeting the livestock sector of five coastal countries (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo). PRIDEC is designed to complement the Regional Support Project for Pastoralism in the Sahel (PRAPS). Read on