The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will consider the deployment of technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its counterterrorism and peace operations within the West African region.
The chairman of the Governmental Experts Validation Meeting on Logistics Concept and Logistics Deport Policies of the ECOWAS Standby Force, Air Commodore Sampson Eyekosi, disclosed this at the closing ceremony of the meeting in Abuja on Friday.
The meeting came ahead of the commissioning of the recently completed ECOWAS Logistics Depot in Lungi, Sierra Leone.
Eyekosi, who said the resolutions of the meeting, which comprised top military personnel and government officials from all ECOWAS member states, would be forwarded to the authorities for ratification in March, said that top on the list was the introduction of technologies to the operations of the standby force.
‘We want to leverage technology and fight against terrorism, insurgency and other threats we see, even climate change. We need technology such as Artificial Intelligence, drones and other forms of technology.
‘We need to harness them as much as possible, working as a whole of the community, bringing our expertise, early warning, humanitarian issues, youth and women; everybody having a part to play so that we can ensure peace and security’, he said.
