| The issue of peace,security and stability is one of the top major issues,which many African states are concerned about today.The African continent oftentimes faced with deadly and most devastating conflicts.These conflicts and wars continue to give the world a negative image of Africa.These conflicts bring nothing but havoc,cause untold suffering and cause considerable human loss,as well as the fragmentation of societies and economic collapse.The recurrence of violent political conflicts in West Africa is certainly one of the major obstacles to the development of certain Member States since the advent of independence.According to Serge he said "It is very difficult at the present time to talk about development economic in Africa if we really do not view very seriously at the genuine problems of conflicts".Considering all these aspects,the countries of West Africa have established a sub-regional body called the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS),created on May 28,1975 by the Treaty of Lagos(Nigeria).Its main impartiality is to promote cooperation and integration by creating a West African Economic and Monetary Union.In order to achieve these objectives,the member states of the organization had to sign a free trade agreement among themselves.It should be noted that the organization has taken a great deal of interest in the issue of maintaining peace in the sub-regions through a program financed by the UN,but the logistical means of which are provided by the member states.In this racetrack,ECOWAS is certainly the sub-regional prime example,which has made a lot of efforts and results noticed in Cote d’Ivoire,Liberia,Sierra Leone,and recently in Mali.With that being said these results should not hinder its shortcomings and the improvements that deserve to be made to this community because sub-regional security is not only limited to the maintenance of peace but to the observation and also to the enlargement of the issues of security on other "policies,military,economic,environmental and societal factors.If the solutions to these wars could be approached in a general or in an independent way in their respective status,in Africa,West Africa in particular,the three countries Liberia,Ivory Coast and Mali witnessed large-scale violent conflicts in the postcolonial period.Between 1989,2011,2012 and 2013,all three-member states witnessed at least one or two civil war and related death count.Result amounts to more than a thousand deaths.1Although they give an alike experience of domestic instability uncertainty and brutal conflict,an in depth look at Liberia,Cote d’Ivoire and Mali has shown that each of the three countries has more discrepancies than shared accounts.On economic and Socio-political conditions,both the threes country colonial periods.Each of these countries was dominated by another big country that different colonial powers with also had a distinctively unique history and witness account of ethnic and regional conflict,they also had varying levels of experienced success in national Socio-Political,economic,development and integration into the world economy mondial in the second Mid-twentieth century.However,given the divaricate development guidelines of the three countries,a jigsaw puzzle emerges regarding the apparition and tenacious of force in the region.Two questions remain unanswered:Why did the conflict develop in those three neighboring countries with different economic and Socio-political histories at about the same time?Were civil Conflicts isolated happening of wars caused primarily by national conditions or by cases of wars broadcasting across national borders?This study attempts to reply these questions regarding the cause of multiple reason regionalization of conflicts have a predominant in various theoretical in recent years,and there is an abundant literature on the causes of conflict in the region.The majority of stipend on conflict and its ground dispensation in sub-Saharan Region presented five principal reasons for their semblance.The colonial legacy and its domination on the power of freshly independent African states to develop and control the strong economic and political institutions.Ethnic issue and tribal tensions in the region had historical aggressiveness inflame by colonization conception of arbitrary borders.Language problem between English and French like we said Anglophones and Francophones within a state.Religious issue also division between Christian and Islamic groups in a state.The moment of precious natural resources that help easy competition for richness and power.Furthermore,in spite of relative agreement on the major causes of disputes,there has been strong difference of opinion over the concept of eruption,which is the root of civil conflict across borders that is the major reason for concern of civil unrest in neighboring countries.1 Instead of relying on a single explanation for each occurrence of conflict in a given country,on the contrary,in such cases as of Liberia,Cote d’Ivoire and Mali,conflicts had been as a consequence of the prism of the system,the social classification,political,ethnic and economic inequalities.2 Perhaps noteworthy,however,the conflict literature in the three countries has mostly failed to provoke the attention of foreign actors in facilitating conflict through the evolution and continuation of a power balancing.Unequal post-colonialism,paying insufficient attention to the intersections between national development and global economic and political processes,specifically,research on the conflict in Liberia,C?te d’Ivoire and Mali can be seen as the impact of colonial and postcolonial foreign involvement on the state formation process,economic,social and policies and long-term stability.While the regional body,ECOWAS(Economic Community of West African States),established on May 28,1975,with the specific and essential mandate of fostering and promoting economic cooperation and integration among its member states.The threats to development,peace-keeping and security prompted ECOWAS to expand its mandate to include conflict resolution in the sub-region.The terrible damage and loss of life and property,associated with internal displacement of millions,as well as refugee movements across borders,have highlighted unprecedented levels of genocide,crimes against the humanity,barbarism and unimaginable human catastrophes the world has ever known since the end of World War I and World War II.The study applies qualitative method with mainly focus on secondary source of data collection,It underlines the importance of an effective regional peacekeeping initiative and the establishment of an effective conflict resolution mechanism.Then the management in the West African sub-region and the establishment of such an intervention force to take action in the event of potential genocide in a given country,and security threats to the peace and security of neighboring States and of the subregion whenever necessary is also of vital course.However,the immobility and sometimes delay of sub-regional countries in galvanizing the political will and military might be necessary to intervene swiftly in the carnage caused in these conflicts fueled vulnerability,thus,failing to prevent an effect of far-reaching training on the peace and stability of the sub-regions.Second,the lack of timely attention to these conflicts by the United Nations,the African Union,the European Union and the world’s superpowers,led by the United States of America,has also made the situation more vulnerable,causing border tensions and genocide in the sub-region.Therefore,West African leaders could not stand idly allowing this devastation to continue due to this change of different model and inter and intra-military disputes resulting in destabilization of the entire sub-region.Despite severe criticism of ECOWAS action,ECOWAS intervention in these conflicts has subsequently been broad echoed by international organizations and governments "of interest".The research study finds that the efforts have been of particular effect in peace restoration and stability of the region and created conditions conducive to the reconstruction and development of these affected countries.Indeed,it is essential to note that insecurity is one of the reasons linked to instability in the ECOWAS sub-region and beyond.Thus,the occurrence and re-emergence of violent political conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa is,of no doubt,a major obstacle to development since the advent of political independence.It is unanimous,as Michailof argues,that it is today complicated to speak of development in Africa if we do not take a serious look at the problem resulting from conflicts,because conflicts delay development in any state,be it within ECOWAS or elsewhere on the continent.It is also worthy mention that often the formula used,and the approach applied in conflict resolution have been violated and,in many cases,have been influenced and overshadowed by the interests of the intervening countries,thus,diverting the attention from the root causes of these conflicts.Furthermore,the study recommends if conflicts were to be definitively resolved once in the interest of the parties concerned,the root causes of these conflicts must first be addressed to prevent their recurrence,thus paving the way for the achievement of a transparency,peace,sustainability of development in the sub-region and beyond. |
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