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Map of ECOMOG members as of 2024

The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) was a West African multilateral armed force established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOMOG was a formal arrangement for separate armies to work together. It was largely supported by personnel and resources of the Nigerian Armed Forces, with sub-battalion strength units contributed by other ECOWAS members — Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, and others. Other contributors included Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, which were ECOWAS members at the time of the operations.

History

Nigeria and other ECOWAS members agreed to a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981. Among other organs, such as a Defence Committee and Defence Council, the protocol provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community (AAFC) as needed.

Anglophone ECOWAS members established ECOMOG in 1990 to intervene in the civil war in Liberia (1989–1997). Nigerian scholar Adekeye Adebajo wrote in 2002 that “there was merit…in the argument that the establishment of ECOMOG did not conform to the constitutional legal requirements of ECOWAS”. The Standing Mediation Committee, the body that established ECOMOG at its meeting in Banjul, Gambia, on 6–7 August 1990, was “on shaky legal foundations”.[1] Adebajo concluded that the arguments used to establish ECOMOG had more solid grounds in politics than in law. The Defence Protocol’s guidelines were not followed, and ECOMOG was justified largely on humanitarian grounds.

Within Africa, ECOMOG represented the first credible attempt at a regional security initiative since the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) tried to establish an “Inter-African Force” to intervene in Chad in 1981.

Liberia intervention

According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, ECOMOG’s objectives in Liberia included imposing a cease-fire, helping establish an interim government pending elections, stopping attacks on civilians, evacuating foreign nationals, and preventing the conflict from spreading to neighboring states.[2]

A Nigerian ECOMOG soldier outside Monrovia, Liberia (1997)

Anglophone members of ECOMOG acted amid opposition from several Francophone ECOWAS members.[3] Max A. Sesay wrote that Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, and Burkina Faso provided training, money, weapons, or other support to Charles Taylor and the National Patriotic Front of Liberia; he identified Burkina Faso as a source of men and training and Côte d’Ivoire as a major conduit for supplies and reinforcement.[4] ECOMOG’s first deployment differed from conventional peacekeeping because there was no cease-fire in place, Taylor’s forces controlled much of the country and opposed the intervention, and the force soon became involved in combat with the NPFL.[4]

The initial ECOMOG force included contingents from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Guinea. Sesay states that about 3,500 troops landed in Liberia on 24 August 1990; Taylor’s forces attacked the peacekeepers, ECOMOG returned fire, and serious fighting followed.[4]

The first Force Commander was Ghanaian Lieutenant General Arnold Quainoo, but he was succeeded by an unbroken line of Nigerian officers. Major General Joshua Dogonyaro took over from Quainoo after Quainoo left Monrovia for consultations with senior ECOWAS officials soon after the death of Samuel Doe at the hands of Prince Johnson‘s Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia on 9 September 1990.[5]

After some prompting from Taylor that the anglophone Nigerians were opposed to him, Senegalese troops were brought in with some financial support from the United States.[6] Their service was short-lived, however, after a major confrontation with Taylor’s forces in Vahun, Lofa County, on 28 May 1992. Six Senegalese soldiers were killed after a crowd of NPFL supporters surrounded their vehicle and demanded that they surrender their jeep and weapons.[7] All of Senegal’s 1,500 soldiers were withdrawn by mid-January 1993.

Assessment and criticism

Nigeria bore much of the military and financial burden of the Liberia operation. Sesay estimated that about 7,000 of the roughly 11,000 ECOMOG troops in Liberia were Nigerian, and wrote that Nigeria was widely believed to have carried more than 70 percent of the financial burden of the force.[4]

Throughout the mission, corruption and organized looting by ECOMOG troops led some Liberians to re-coin the acronym ECOMOG as “Every Car or Movable Object Gone”. Stephen Ellis reported one of the most egregious examples as the removal of iron ore processing machinery for onward sale while the Buchanan compound was under ECOMOG control.[8]

The CRS described ECOMOG as suffering from political divisions among ECOWAS members, resource shortages, corruption allegations involving some forces, and unofficial political and economic links with Liberian factions. It nevertheless credited the force with stabilizing Monrovia from 1990 through 1995, while Taylor’s NPFL and the Liberia Peace Council controlled much of the countryside.[2]

United States support and withdrawal from Liberia

The United States Department of State provided logistical support to the force through the U.S. company Pacific Architects & Engineers, which provided trucks and drivers.[9] U.S. support also included Peacekeeping Operations funding, Economic Support Fund assistance, and drawdowns of Department of Defense equipment.[2]

In February 1997, the United States undertook Operation Assured Lift, transporting 1,160 ECOMOG troops and equipment to Liberia. U.S. aircraft based in Germany ferried Malian, Ivorian, and Ghanaian peacekeepers from their home countries to Monrovia as logistical support for the peace process.[2]

Following Taylor’s election as President of Liberia on 19 July 1997, ECOMOG’s postwar role remained a source of tension. Taylor initially sought the force’s continued presence for security purposes, but disputes arose over ECOMOG’s regional operations, including its role in Sierra Leone and a 1998 incident in which ECOMOG aircraft forced a helicopter carrying former Sierra Leonean junta leader Johnny Paul Koroma to land in Liberia.[2] The final Field Commander, General Timothy Shelpidi, withdrew the force fully by the end of 1998.[2]

Later deployments

Malian ECOMOG troops in front of Mali Air Force’s MiG-21bis fighter aircraft at Bamako–Sénou Airport in Mali (1997)

ECOWAS later deployed ECOMOG forces to other conflicts:

In 2001, ECOWAS planned to deploy 1,700 men along the Guinea–Liberia border to stop guerrilla infiltration by fighters opposed to the post-1997 Liberian government. However, fighting between Taylor’s government and the new LURD rebel movement, combined with a lack of funding, meant that no force was deployed.[11]

In 2003, ECOWAS, under pressure from the United States, launched a similar mission named ECOMIL to halt the occupation of Monrovia by rebel forces while peace efforts were ongoing during the Second Liberian Civil War.[12] Always intended as an interim force, it was quickly succeeded by the United Nations Mission in Liberia.

ECOMOG Commanders

Below is a chronological list of ECOMOG commanders:[13]

Liberia

Commander Country Title Dates
Lt-Gen. Arnold Quainoo Ghana Force Commander July 1990 – September 1990
Maj-Gen. Joshua Dogonyaro Nigeria Field Commander September 1990 – February 1991
Maj-Gen. Rufus Kupolati Nigeria Field Commander February 1991 – September 1991
Maj-Gen. Ishaya Bakut Nigeria Field Commander September 1991- October 1992
Brig-Gen. Tunji Olurin Nigeria Field Commander October 1992 – October 1993
Maj-Gen. John Shagaya Nigeria Field Commander October 1993 – December 1993
Maj-Gen. John Mark Inienger Nigeria Field Commander December 1993 – August 1996
Maj-Gen. Victor Malu Nigeria Force Commander August 1996 – January 1998
Maj-Gen. Timothy Shelpidi Nigeria Force Commander January 1998 – March 1999
Maj-Gen. Felix Mujakperuo Nigeria Force Commander 1999

Sierra Leone

Commander Year(s)
Major-Gen. Gabriel Kpamber 2000
Brig-Gen. Abu Ahmadu 2000
Brig-Gen. Maxwell Khobe[14][15] 1999
Major-Gen. Felix Mujakperuo 1999
Major-Gen. Abdul One Mohammed 1998

See also

References

  1. ^ Adekeye Adebajo, Liberia’s Civil War: Nigeria, ECOMOG, and Regional Security in West Africa, Lynne Rienner/International Peace Academy, 2002, pp. 64–65; also citing David Wippman, “Enforcing Peace: ECOWAS and the Liberian Civil War”, in Lori Fisler Damrosch, ed., Enforcing Restraint: Collective Interventions in Internal Conflicts, New York, Council on Foreign Relations, 1993, pp. 157–203.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Liberia: 1989–1997 Civil War, Post-War Developments, and U.S. Relations (PDF) (Report). Congressional Research Service. 31 December 2003. RL30933.
  3. ^ Berman and Sams, 2000, pp. 88–89.
  4. ^ a b c d Sesay, Max A. (1996). “Civil War and Collective Intervention in Liberia”. Review of African Political Economy. 23 (67): 35–52. JSTOR 4006227.
  5. ^ Adekeye Adebajo, Liberia’s Civil War: Nigeria, ECOMOG, and Regional Security in West Africa, Lynne Rienner/International Peace Academy, 2002, pp. 78–79.
  6. ^ Adebajo, 2002, p. 107.
  7. ^ Adebajo, 2002, p. 108.
  8. ^ Stephen Ellis, The Mask of Anarchy, 2001, p. 173. See also updated edition, NYU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8147-2238-5.
  9. ^ Mitikishe Maxwell Khobe, The Evolution and Conduct of ECOMOG Operations in West Africa Archived 2013-04-05 at the Wayback Machine, in Monograph No. 44, Institute for Security Studies, South Africa.
  10. ^ United Nations Security Council Document 294. Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1216(1998) relative to the situation in Guinea-Bissau S/1999/294 17 March 1999. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  11. ^ Adebajo, 2002, p. 234.
  12. ^ “Military”. UNMIL. 2015-09-02. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  13. ^ Berman & Sams (2000). Peacekeeping in Africa: Capabilities and Culpabilities. United Nations Publications UNIDIR, 2000. p. 95. ISBN 9789290451334. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  14. ^ General Khobe served as the chief of staff of the Sierra Leone army after the war. He died of Encephalitis at the St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos, due to injury from the war.
  15. ^ “BARRACKS”. Archived from the original on 2003-07-14.