The delegation, comprising the Special Representative of the President of the ECOWAS Commission in Côte d’Ivoire, Ambassador Jonathan O. Coker, the Director of Early Warning, Dr. Abdou Lat Gueye as well as Michel Saraka, Nanténé Coulibaly Seck and Esther Daramola, analysts in the Early Warning Directorate, met several Ivorian authorities during its visit.

The delegation had discussions with the Prime Minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan, and officials of the Ministries of Interior and Security, Foreign Affairs, African Integration and Ivoirians in Diaspora and the Ministry of Defence.

The series of meetings were held to assist the Ivorian authorities in the creation of a national working group that will be responsible for supervising the implementing the process of the ECOWAS National Early Warning and Response Mechanism and, in the setting up of a suitable building that will serve as the office of the national coordination centre of the Mechanism.

Furthermore, the Ivorian government has already adopted through the Council of Ministers a decree on the creation, responsibilities, structure and functioning of the centre as well as the notice relating to the decree.

The decree is in keeping with the policy for the prevention and management of security threats in the Community.

It is worth recalling that in December 2015 in Abuja (Nigeria), the 48th Ordinary Summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the regional organisation finally approved the ECOWAS National Early Warning and Response Mechanism implementation project in the Member states with the adoption of the Regulation on its implementation.

The pilot countries of this project are Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Burkina Faso.