By Omar Bah
Ecowas has launched a new strategic publication documenting its 2017 military and diplomatic intervention that secured the peaceful transfer of power in The Gambia, calling it one of West Africa’s most consequential uses of regional force for democracy.
The document, ‘The Ecowas Intervention from the Peaceful Transfer of Democratic Power in The Gambia’, was unveiled in Abuja alongside three other publications aimed at consolidating Ecowas’ institutional memory on peace support, mediation and conflict prevention.
Speaking at the launch, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff General Christopher Gwabin Musa said documenting Africa’s own experiences was critical.
“Recording the stories and lessons of those who directly participated in regional interventions is essential for strengthening future responses to complex security threats,” he said.
Ecowas Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, described the publication as a milestone for regional learning. He said it captures lessons that can inform responses to terrorism, violent extremism and other emerging threats.
The Gambia publication joins others like ‘Fighting Bushfires. Ecowas and Peacemaking in West Africa’; the report of the International Conference on ‘Two Decades of Peace Processes in West Africa’; and the ‘Akosombo After-Action Review of Ecowas’ Initiatives and Responses to the Multidimensional Crisis in Mali’.
The intervention in The Gambia followed the December 1, 2016 presidential election in which incumbent Yahya Jammeh was defeated by coalition candidate Adama Barrow. After initially conceding, Jammeh rejected the results, triggering a constitutional crisis.
With mediation failing, Ecowas activated a standby force in January 2017. Troops from Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and other member states entered The Gambia to enforce the election result and protect the president-elect. Under regional and international pressure, Jammeh stepped down on January 21, 2017 and went into exile in Equatorial Guinea. Barrow was sworn in, marking The Gambia’s first democratic transfer of power.
The operation is widely cited as Ecowas’ first use of threatened force to uphold an electoral outcome, and it has since become a reference point for defending constitutional order in the region.
The Abuja launch convened senior officials, military leaders and diplomats including Ecowas Permanent Representatives from The Gambia, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo, as well as partners from UNOWAS, WANEP, WACSI and CDD.
Reactions
Reacting to the publication, renowned Gambian historian Hassoum Ceesay told The Standard that the publication should serve as a “Wake-up call” for democracy in West Africa, saying it reminds the region of the need to defend democratic gains.
“This Ecowas publication matters for three fundamental reasons: first, on the point of documentation and the need always for international organisations to put for the historical record the critical interventions that were made by Ecowas to ensure the continuity, the sustenance and the restoration of the people’s choice in The Gambia ten years ago,” he said.
Second, he added, “it is also significant because it offers significant lessons for today and for tomorrow that international organisations like Ecowas have a fundamental and useful role to play in keeping the embers of democracy and the rule of law alive in the region.”
“Three, it is also a wake-up call because we are in a neighborhood that is still fraught as far as political instability is concerned. So the Ecowas publication should be a wake-up call and a reminder that we should always be vigilant and be ready to defend the democratic gains of our country and democratic traditions.”