ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff (CCDS) met at an Extraordinary Session in Accra yesterday “to articulate military contributions to strengthen regional response against the Ebola outbreak which has inflicted huge humanitarian and economic tolls on the region” according to an ECOWAS press release.
The meeting followed an Extraordinary Summit on Ebola by heads of state in Ghana in November which urged member states to contribute military personnel and logistics “to enhance response capacities, support the medical staff on the field and participate in the construction of additional treatment centers and ensure security”.
The defence chiefs discussed the range of contributions including pledges by member countries and deployment of military personnel to the most affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, in compliance with the decision of the regional leaders.
The CCDS Accra meeting, which followed the deployment on 3rd December of the first batch of ECOWAS volunteer health workers to the three countries after training in Accra, considered the ECOWAS Standby Force’s Concept of Operations on the fight against Ebola.
Within the context of the regional response initiatives, the President of the ECOWAS Commission H.E. Kadré Desire Ouédraogo visited Togo on 4th December 2014 to meet with President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe on the implementation of the regional Roadmap on Ebola epidemic in the region.
© Politico 09/12/14
