President Bassirou Diomaye FAYE, Current Chair of ECOWAS

Speaking before his peers, the Head of State offered a clear-eyed assessment of the Community’s situation: a resilient but still vulnerable economy; a region weakened by terrorism; and institutions in need of reform. For each of these challenges, he called for the same course of action: making the Regional Counterterrorism Force operational, pooling resources, strengthening the Community’s financial autonomy, and providing better protection for affected populations.

In accepting this responsibility, the President of the Republic stated that he fully appreciates the weight of this legacy: fifty years of solidarity, integration, and collective development. He pledged to keep this legacy alive by adapting it to the challenges of our time: collective security, institutional stability, political and economic sovereignty, and a stronger, more audible, and more credible voice for West Africa on the international stage. President FAYE has dedicated his term as head of ECOWAS to building a reconciled and united West Africa.