ECOWAS: Commission signs amendment with UNODA/UNREC to strengthen the fight against arms proliferation

The ECOWAS Commission and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), through its United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), signed an amendment on August 21, 2026, at the Commission's headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, to the memorandum of understanding concluded between the two institutions in 2009. The signing follows a strategic dialogue entitled "Enhancing Cooperation Between ECOWAS Commission and UNODA/UNREC on Regional Disarmament, Peace and Security," which brought together senior officials and technical experts from the three institutions to discuss the evolving regional security context. The amendment updates the partnership framework established in 2009, the year the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, adopted in Abuja in 2006, entered into force. Specifically, the two institutions commit to translating this partnership into operational cooperation: technical assistance, capacity building, policy development, knowledge production and sharing, regional consultations, information sharing, joint programming, and resource mobilization for the benefit of ECOWAS member states. The agreement comes amid a deteriorating security context: the proliferation of small arms stemming from the 2011 Libyan crisis, the expansion of armed groups in the Sahel, and the withdrawal in January 2025 of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger from ECOWAS in favor of the Alliance of Sahel States, which reduces the organization's direct scope of action across part of the Sahelian front. For remaining member states, this partnership with UNREC, based in Lomé since 1986, aims to consolidate existing instruments in the face of a cross-border threat.