Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group

The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group or ECOMOG was a West African multilateral armed force established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOMOG was a formal arrangement for separate armies to work together. Its backbone was Nigerian armed forces and financial resources, with sub-battalion strength units contributed by other ECOWAS members — Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and others.

History

Nigeria, Ghana and other ECOWAS members agreed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981. Among other organs such as a Defence Committee and Council, it provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community (AAFC) as needed.

Anglophone ECOWAS members established ECOMOG in 1990 to intervene in the civil war in Liberia (1989–96). Nigerian scholar Adekeye Adebajo wrote in 2002 that 'there was merit.. in the argument that the establishment of ECOMOG did not conform to the constitutional legal requirements of ECOWAS.' The Standing Mediation Committee, the body that established ECOMOG at its meeting in Banjul, Gambia on 6-7 August 1990, was 'on shaky legal foundations.' [Adekeye Adebajo, 'Liberia's Civil War: Nigeria, ECOMOG, and Regional Security in West Africa,' Lynne Rienner/International Peace Academy, 2002, p.64-5, also citing David Wippman, 'Enforcing Peace: ECOWAS and the Liberian Civil War,' in Lori Fisler Damrosch (ed), 'Enforcing Restraint, Collective Interventions in Internal Conflicts,' New York, Council on Foreign Relations, 1993, pp.157-203] Adebajo concludes that the arguments used in establish ECOMOG had more solid grounds in politics than in law, and that ECOMOG was justified largely on humanitarian grounds. Anglophone members of ECOMOG acted because the Francophone ECOWAS members were opposed to mobilising the AAFC under the previous year's protocol. Unlike the typical UN mission of its day, ECOMOG's first deployment entailed fighting its way into a many-sided civil war, in an attempt to forcibly hold the warring factions apart.

The first Force Commander was Ghanaian General Arnold Quainoo, but he was succeeded by an unbroken line of Nigerian officers. Major General Joshua Dogonyaro took over from Quainoo after Quainoo had left Monrovia for consultations with senior ECOWAS officials soon after the death of Samuel Doe at the hands of Prince Johnson's Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia on 9 September 1990. [Adekeye Adebajo, 'Liberia's Civil War: Nigeria, ECOMOG, and Regional Security in West Africa,' Lynne Rienner/International Peace Academy, 2002, p.78-79]

After some prompting from Taylor that the anglophone Nigerians and Ghanaians were opposed to him, Senegalese troops were brought in with some financial support from the United States. [Adekeye Adebajo, 2002, p.107] Their service was however shortlived, after a major confrontation with Taylor forces in Vahun, Lofa County on 28 May 1992, when six were killed when a crowd of NPFL supporters surrounded their vehicle and demanded they surrender their jeep and weapons. [Adebajo, 2002, p.108] All of Senegal's 1,500 troops were withdrawn by mid January 1993.

Throughout the mission, corruption and organized looting by ECOMOG troops led some Liberians to re-coin the acronym ECOMOG as "Every Car or Movable Object Gone." Stephen Ellis reports one of the most egregious examples as being the total removal of the Buchanan iron ore processing machinery for onward sale while the Buchanan compound was under ECOMOG control. ["The Mask of Anarchy", by Stephen Ellis, 2001 (There is also an NYU Press Updated Edition 2006, ISBN 0814722385)]

Following Charles Taylor's election as President of Liberia on 19 July 1997, the final Field Commander, General Timothy Shelpidi, withdrew the force fully by the end of 1998. ECOWAS deployed ECOMOG forces later on to control conflict in other cases:
* 1997 — Sierra Leone, to stop the RUF rebellion.
* 1999 — Guinea-BissauUN document |docid=S-1999-294 |type=Document |body=Security Council |year=1999 |document_number=294 |accessdate=2008-07-01|date=17 March 1999|title=Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1216(1998) relative to the situation in Guinea-Bissau]

In 2001, ECOWAS planned to deploy 1,700 troops along the Guinea–Liberia border to stop guerrilla infiltration by fighters opposed to the new post-1998 election government. However, fighting between Charles Taylor's new government and the new LURD rebel movement, plus a lack of funding, meant no force was actually ever deployed. [Adebajo, 2002, p.234]

In 2003 ECOWAS, under pressure from the United States, launched a similar mission named ECOMIL to halt the occupation of Monrovia by rebel forces as peace efforts were ongoing, during the Second Liberian Civil War. Always intended as an interim force, it was quickly succeeded by the United Nations mission UNMIL.

Wider influence

Within Africa, ECOMOG represents the first credible attempt at a regional security initiative since the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) tried to established an 'Inter-African Force' to intervene in Chad in 1981. As such it is closely followed by other African states, which recognize the potential social and economic benefits of locally-guaranteed regional stability.Fact|date=August 2008

ECOMOG's role is being slowly taken on by the nascent African Union's Peace and Security Council's African Standby Force. The ECOWAS component of the ASF is a proposed standby task force.

References

* Mitikishe Maxwell Khobe, [http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No44/ECOMOG.html "The Evolution and Conduct of ECOMOG Operations in West Africa"] , in "Monograph" No.44, Institute for Security Studies, South Africa
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/2364029.stm Profile: ECOMOG] , from BBC News Online, 17 June 2004

External links

* [http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/liberia/ Assessment of ECOMOG's Liberia intervention] published in "Human Rights Watch [http://hrw.org/reports/world/reports/ World Reports] ", Volume 5, Issue No. 6, June 1993,
* [http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No46/Ecomog.html ECOMOG: A model for Africa?] by Comfort Ero, Centre for Defence Studies, King's College London in "Monograph" [http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No46/CONTENTS.HTML No 46] , February 2000 published by the Institute for Security Studies.
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/2364029.stm Profile: Ecomog] , BBC News Online, 17 June, 2004.
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/55719.stm ECOMOG: Peacekeeper or Participant?] , BBC News Online, February 11, 1998.
* [http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/asylum/ric/documentation/SLE01001.htm Sierra Leone: Information on the 1997 coup d'état, ECOMOG harassment of civilians, and the current situation in Sierra Leone] , [http://uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services] , 5 January 2000
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0495103/ Documentary on ECOMOG involvement in Sierra Leone.]