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Armed conflicts frustrate peace initiatives: ECOWAS

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-19 15:18

LAGOS -- President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission Mohammed Ibn Chambas warned parties in the various conflicts in the region to sheathe their swords, saying armed conflicts will never lead to the development of the West Africa region.

The ECOWAS boss, who identified poor resource management and exclusion from development as major causes of conflicts in the region, said hostility is antithetical to conflict resolution, Lagos-based newspaper This Day reported Sunday.

Speaking on Saturday at the closing ceremony of the program on sustainable development put together by Nigeria's Rivers State Sustainable Agency, he appealed to all parties to the conflict to lay down their arms and cease all forms of hostilities for development to thrive.

He named Casamance region of Senegal, Northern regions of Ghana, Niger and Mali as areas with high incidence of violence owing to agitation for development and equitable distribution of resources.

According to him, the route to lasting solution to the problem remains the execution of positive and developmental programmes by governments at all tiers in fulfillment of their social contract with the electorate.

On the part of those who have resorted to arms struggle to press home their demands, he advized them to drop their weapons and cooperate with efforts to ensure that all wrongs were corrected as it was impossible to develop a conflict-ridden area.

The ECOWAS Commission boss commended the Rivers State government as having started out in the right direction by discussing the issues and called for urgent empowerment of the youths.

Apart form empowerment, he said the state should also address the issue of poverty and infrastructural development through adequate application of resources and execution of people oriented- programmes.