Agence de Presse Ouest-Africaine
Agence de Presse Ouest-Africaine
ECOWAS, the African Union Commission and WANEP held a two-day regional consultation in Accra on 26 and 27 October 2026 to assess implementation of the Continental Framework on Youth, Peace and Security. Officials from the three bodies and Ghana's youth ministry spoke on participation, financing and national action plans, with the assessment due to go before the AU Peace and Security Council.
The ECOWAS Commission is participating in the Africa International Defence Exhibition in Lagos, where Commission President General Birame Diop called for resilience and self-reliance in defence manufacturing. Nigerian officials at the opening ceremony stressed the need for closer cooperation against terrorism, organised crime and maritime insecurity.
ECOMIG and the Gambian Defence and Security Forces launched a week-long breast cancer awareness campaign at the Gambia School of Nursing and Midwifery in Banjul, opening with a route march and a ceremony featuring a keynote address and self-examination demonstrations. Activities are scheduled to continue through 22 October with screenings in Yundum, Barra and Kanfenda.
A new study of 14 green-energy policies in Ghana and South Africa finds that women are concentrated in lower-paid, non-technical roles while men hold most engineering and leadership positions. The authors propose a framework to help governments check whether energy policies expand women's economic opportunities before programmes are approved.
African economies are forecast to grow around 4.5% in 2026 and 2027, above global projections, but the World Bank expects poverty in 2027 to exceed 2022 levels and public debt has grown at four times the rate of GDP since 2010. A report by Danny Bradlow sets out six proposals, from mobilising US$4 trillion in domestic institutional assets to reforming the IMF.
The ECOWAS Permanent Representation to the African Union has endorsed conclusions from the third Abidjan Border Forum, held 20 to 22 October 2026 on the theme of border communities, culture, integration and security. The representation said it agreed that cultural and historical ties and traditional mediation matter for stability, that cross-border trade drives integration despite administrative and infrastructural obstacles, and that security alone cannot answer terrorism and illicit trafficking. It committed to carrying five recommendations to the continental level, including faster ratification of the Niamey Convention and stronger capacity for the African Union Borders Programme.
ECOWAS Commission Vice-President Anthony Oluwatosin Ogunjimi met French Development Agency Director-General Christophe Lecourtier in Abuja on 27 October 2026. The talks focused on food security and the dairy sector, with both sides agreeing to keep discussing possible areas of partnership.
Algeria's Parliament has approved sending army units to Niger under Article 91 of the Constitution, with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordering the deployment less than 24 hours later. A researcher writing for The Conversation argues the move reflects a shift in a doctrine long reluctant to accept foreign military engagement, while the mission's mandate, troop numbers and duration remain undefined.
A delegation from the ECOWAS Parliament's Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources is in Lomé from 27 to 29 October 2026 to review the work of the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food. The mission focuses on the ECOWAS STOCKS II project and the West African School Feeding Modernisation Programme.
Researchers writing for The Conversation argue that deficit-based views of African universities obscure their role in social innovation. Their study of the University of Cape Town identifies three pathways — intrapreneurship, entrepreneurship and extrapreneurship — while cautioning that the case is relatively well-resourced and more research across contexts is needed.
