Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|West African multilateral armed force}}
{{More footnotes|date=February 2008}}
[[File:ECOWAS members.svg|thumb|Map of ECOMOG members as of 2005.]]
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Nigeria and other ECOWAS members agreed to a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance, in [[Freetown]], Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981. Among other organs such as a Defence Committee and Council, it provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community (AAFC) as needed.
[[English-speaking world|Anglophone]] ECOWAS members established ECOMOG in 1990 to intervene in the [[First Liberian Civil War|civil war in Liberia]] (
Within Africa, ECOMOG represented the first credible attempt at a regional security initiative since the [[Organisation of African Unity]] (OAU) tried to
[[File:Nigerian ECOMOG soldier Liberia.jpg|thumb|A [[Nigeria]]n ECOMOG soldier outside [[Monrovia]], [[Liberia]] (1997)]]
Anglophone members of ECOMOG acted because several [[Francophone]] ECOWAS members strongly opposed the deployment.<ref>Berman and Sams, 2000, p.88-89</ref> The leaders of [[Burkina Faso]] and [[Cote d'Ivoire|Côte d'Ivoire]] supported [[Charles Taylor (Liberia)|Charles Taylor]] in his attempt to depose [[Samuel Doe]]. Unlike the typical UN mission of its day, ECOMOG's first deployment entailed fighting its way into a many-sided civil war, in an attempt to forcibly hold the warring factions apart.
[[File:Mali ECOMOG troops hangar.jpg|thumb|[[Mali]]an ECOMOG troops in front of Mali Air Force's [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21|MiG 21bis]] [[fighter aircraft]] at [[Bamako–Sénou International Airport|Bamako–Sénou Airport]] in [[Mali]] (1997)]]
The first Force Commander was Ghanaian Lieutenant General [[Arnold Quainoo]], but he was succeeded by an unbroken line of Nigerian officers. Major General [[Joshua Dogonyaro]] took over from Quainoo after Quainoo had left Monrovia for consultations with senior ECOWAS officials soon after the death of [[Samuel Doe]] at the hands of [[Prince Johnson]]'s [[Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia]] on 9 September 1990.<ref>Adekeye Adebajo, 'Liberia's Civil War: Nigeria, ECOMOG, and Regional Security in West Africa,' Lynne Rienner/International Peace Academy, 2002, p.78-79</ref>
After some prompting from Taylor that the anglophone Nigerians were opposed to him, Senegalese troops were brought in with some financial support from the United States.<ref>Adekeye Adebajo, 2002, p.107</ref> Their service was, however, short-lived, after a major confrontation with Taylor forces in [[Vahun]], [[Lofa County]] on 28 May 1992, when six were killed when a crowd of [[National Patriotic Front of Liberia|NPFL]] supporters surrounded their vehicle and demanded they surrender their jeep and weapons.<ref>Adebajo, 2002, p.108</ref> All of Senegal's 1,500 soldiers were withdrawn by mid January 1993.
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The [[United States State Department]] provided some logistics support to the force via the U.S. company [[Pacific Architects & Engineers]], which provided trucks and drivers.<ref>Mitikishe Maxwell Khobe, [http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No44/ECOMOG.html ''The Evolution and Conduct of ECOMOG Operations in West Africa''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405044431/http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No44/ECOMOG.html |date=2013-04-05 }}, in ''[[Monograph]]'' No.44, [[Institute for Security Studies]], [[South Africa]]</ref> Five Air Force C-130 Hercules also moved African troops and supplies during Operation Assured Lift in February–March 1997.<ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/assured_lift.htm, accessed 2011</ref>
Following Charles Taylor's election as President of Liberia on 19 July 1997, the final Field Commander, General [[Timothy Shelpidi]], withdrew the force fully by the end of 1998.
ECOWAS deployed ECOMOG forces later on to control conflict in other cases:
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In 2001, ECOWAS planned to deploy 1,700 men along the [[Guinea]]–[[Liberia]] border to stop guerrilla infiltration by fighters opposed to the new post-1998 election government. However, fighting between [[Charles Taylor (Liberia)|Charles Taylor]]'s new government and the new [[LURD]] rebel movement, plus a lack of funding, meant no force was actually ever deployed.<ref>Adebajo, 2002, p.234</ref>
In 2003 ECOWAS, under pressure from the [[United States]], launched a similar mission named [[
==ECOMOG Commanders==
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| September 1991- October 1992
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| Nigeria
| Field Commander
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| August 1996 - January 1998
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| Maj-Gen. [[Timothy Shelpidi]]
| Nigeria
| Force Commander
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! Year(s)
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| 2000
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| 2000
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| 1999
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| 1999
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| 1998
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