ECOWAS Heads of States and Governments elected Niger’s President Issoufou Mahamadou for a one-year term as Chair of ECOWAS.
Mr Mahamadou was elected to succeed Nigeria’s outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari at the 55th Ordinary Session of ECOWAS officials on Saturday in Abuja.
A press release read by Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Mustapha Suleiman said the leaders praised Mr. Buhari for his dedication to regional integration.
ECOWAS also decided to hold its next regular meeting in Abuja on 21 December.
The session was attended by the presidents of 13 of the 15 heads of state.
They are the Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo presidents.
Julio Cesar Lopes, Minister of Regional Integration, represented Cabo Verde, and Amadou Ba, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad represented Senegal.
The session was also attended by ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Brou and Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohamed Ibn Chambas.
Other participants included the president of the International Criminal Court, Justice Chile Eboe-Osuji and Mr Abdallah, President of the Economic and Monetary Union Commission of West Africa.
