The President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Kadre Quedraogo, has appealed to governments of member states not to shut their borders owing to the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in the region, but maintain caution on its surveillance rules.
The ECOWAS President explained that shutting the borders would only frustrate current efforts to strengthen economic ties and integration process among member states.
Mr Quedraogo, who was speaking at the 10th edition of the ECOWAS Development Partners Annual Coordination meeting in Abuja, urged countries to focus on improving access to basic services and job creation to tackle the challenge of terrorism.
Examining the major challenges facing the West African region, other development partners at the meeting, like the United Nations and the European Union underscored the need to aggressively fight against both human and food insecurity.
In the wake of the growing challenges of terrorism and more recently the Ebola Virus Disease, countries have teamed up to proffer more permanent solutions to the outbreak.
There have been deepening discussions on how to adopt a more coordinated approach to the issues as member countries sought bold measures to contain the epidemic.
