China on Thursday donated $5 million worth of non-lethal military equipment to the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) to ease its operations.
Speaking in Abuja at a ceremony organised to handover the equipment, President of the ECOWAS Commission, Amb. Kadre Ouedraogo, said the donation by the Chinese Government would boost the operational capacity of the standby force.
• Cue in audio 1 (Ouedraogo)
“Today, we are all gathered here to officially receive the non-lethal military equipment magnanimously donated by the Government of the Peoples’ Republic of China to the ECOWAS Standby Force.
“The donation is worth about five million U.S. dollars and comprises among others, personnel protective equipment, a high capacity generator, tents, IT and communications equipment as well as eight motor transport vehicles including three command vehicles, two buses, one ambulance, one fuel tanker and one water tanker.
“Currently, our region is faced with new realities and emerging threats to peace and security.
“The donation of today will reduce ECOWAS Standby Force deficiencies in areas of effective rapid deployable equipment; it will also greatly enhance its abilities to rapidly deploy to meet its mandate whenever required.”
Ouedraogo assured that the force would be “more professionally efficient to plan and organise various training activities across the sub-region and put to judicious use the equipment”.
He expressed gratitude to the Chinese Government for the donation and also to the Nigerian Government for the efforts it made to facilitate the clearing, transportation, and temporary storage of the equipment.
In his remarks, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Amb. Gu Xiaojie, said the donation of the military equipment to the standby force would promote relations between China and ECOWAS.
Xiaojie also said the Chinese Government’s donation was in line with the commitment it made at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Johannesburg in Dec. 2015.
The envoy also reassured of his government’s resolve to sustain relations with West African countries and the various regional economic communities in the interest of peace and security in the continent.
Source: NAN