The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has approved the membership of the three countries of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—in the Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) as non-ECOWAS members.
In a statement released on Tuesday, ECOWAS announced that the 2nd extraordinary meeting of the GIABA Ministerial Committee, recently held in Accra (Ghana), "concluded with a major decision: to allow the three Sahel countries that have withdrawn from ECOWAS to join GIABA as non-ECOWAS members.”
During the meeting, the attending ministers unanimously acknowledged the need to collectively address "the insecurity affecting the region,” the statement added, noting that the decision will be submitted to the ECOWAS Council of Ministers and the Conference of Heads of State and Government for review.
At the session, the Nigerian Minister of Justice officially handed over the chairmanship of the Ministerial Committee to the Minister of Finance of Sierra Leone, who now assumes the role of Committee Chair.
Established in 2000 by the ECOWAS Conference of Heads of State and Government, the Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) is a specialized ECOWAS institution responsible for building the capacity of member states to prevent and combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism in the region.