The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has confirmed that in the last four and half years, terrorists have killed nothing less than 14,500 people in the West African region and displaced 5.5 million people.
Jean-Claude Brou, the outgoing President of the ECOWAS Commission stated this in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria, while handing over power to the new management of the Commission led by President Omar Touray.
His words, “First of all, the deterioration of the security situation has caused havoc not only in the Sahel area, affecting Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and the North- East of Nigeria, but it soon expanded to the coastal zone, hitting Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Togo. Terrorist attacks and herds of bandits plunged these countries into mourning, with close to 14,500 dead in four and a half years, threatening the peace of the rural population, and forcing people to seek shelter away from their home areas. Thus, the number of refugees and internally displaced people in our region reached about 5.5m persons who need humanitarian assistance.”
He said that the commission has reached out to assist many of the victims of terrorists and the victims of natural disasters.
