ECOWAS and conflict resolution in Burkina Faso.

Abstract

Over the past decades, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has a mixed record in conflict resolution in Africa. In some cases, ECOWAS demonstrated its capabilities in conflict prevention and peace-making, but its conflict resolution efforts in some countries ended up in failure. This research focuses on the conflict resolution efforts of ECOWAS in Africa, and seeks to explain the following question: why did conflict resolution efforts of ECOWAS ended up in failure in Burkina Faso? Coup d‘état has always been a conflict trigger for the region and pose serious security challenges to member states of ECOWAS. The case of Burkina Faso highlights that among other factors, lack of leadership and collective will is the main factor leading to the failure of conflict resolution of ECOWAS in Burkina Faso. ECOWAS proved in the case to be incapable of intervening effectively in the coups in Burkina Faso. The reasons for this lack of intervening capability include lack of leadership to exercise strategies of solving conflicts, lack of sufficient budget to implement military coercion and meaningful sanctions, institutional bureaucracy of ECOWAS fails to provide early warning of coups,and lack of legal authoritative legitimacy. The study concludes thatmember states of ECOWAS including Burkina Faso should accept the check and balances or simply welcomes the supervision of power politics from ECOWAS. Collective efforts in uprooting terrorism should be a priority.Political inclusivity where all players including oppositions, civil societies and private sectors should play collective role in national development.ECOWAS should ensure the monitoring of constitutions of members and safeguard the implementation of regional standards operational procedures, develop mechanisms of early warnings to mitigate any political breakdown, and revise its treaty to include powers to enforce its decisions through ECOMOG or parliamentary, so as to increases its leadership capability to peacefully resolve disputes.