Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and African Union (AU) Deepen Cooperation on Early Warning and Conflict Prevention Mechanisms

The Commissions of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) commenced a three-day technical engagement in Abuja aimed at strengthening cooperation between the Continental Early Warning System (CEWS) and the ECOWAS Early Warning and Response Network (ECOWARN). The meeting, taking place from 8 to 10 June 2026 at the new ECOWAS Commission Headquarters, forms part of a coordination and experience-sharing visit by a delegation from the West Africa Regional Desk and the CEWS Situation Room of the AUC in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to the ECOWAS Commission.

The meeting builds on the outcomes of the September 2025 AU–ECOWAS–WANEP Early Warning Desk-to-Desk Technical Meeting on Joint Conflict Analysis and Governance Monitoring in West Africa and seeks to advance the implementation of the agreed roadmap for enhanced collaboration, information sharing, and conflict prevention.

During the opening ceremony, Dr. Onyinye Onwuka, Acting Director of the ECOWAS Early Warning Directorate, and Mrs. Ma-yah Ngalla, AUC Senior Political Officer and Regional Desk Officer for the Sahel and West African Region, underscored the importance of deeper cooperation in a rapidly evolving peace and security environment. They stressed that strengthened coordination, anchored in the principles of subsidiarity and complementarity, is vital to advancing peace and security in West Africa.

Participants in this important technical engagement include representatives of the African Union West Africa Regional Desk, the ECOWAS Early Warning Directorate (EWD), the ECOWAS Directorate of Political Affairs, the Directorate of Peacekeeping and Regional Security (DPKRS), and the West Africa  Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP).

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).