Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) may need to review its Transhumance Protocol, which permits cross-border cattle grazing but inadvertently creates opportunities for terrorists posing as herdsmen to incite violence and ethnic tensions across the region.

This concern was raised by policy experts, Dr Ben Nwosu and Dr Ndu Nwokolo of Nextier in their recent policy brief, ‘ECOWAS at 50: Changing Landscape of Regional Politics, Insecurity and Coping Capacity’.

This was as the Benue State chapter of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) raised concerns over alleged intimidation, cattle rustling and threats to life in several communities across the state.

Nwosu and Nwokolo noted in the document: “ECOWAS should revisit its protocol on transhumance, which supports cross-border cattle grazing and offers a window for terrorists who disguise as herdsmen to spread violence and ethnic strife in the region. The union should either withdraw or make the Transhumance Protocol more stringent and support modern methods of animal husbandry to mitigate the free movement of ethnicity-driven terrorists.”

They also noted the need for ECOWAS to explore military cooperation among its members to fight internal terrorism and violence and scale down or completely stop excessive external military involvement, as they build cycles of dependency that will continue to stunt the growth of the sub-region.

In addition to curbing violence, the authors stressed the need for ECOWAS to establish an intelligence fusion centre to curb the resurgence of terrorism in the sub-region.

IN a statement issued in Makurdi, yesterday, the association’s Chairman, Ardo Risku, and Secretary, Ibrahim Galma, disclosed that one of their members, Sanni Hassan, was killed last Tuesday at North Bank, Makurdi, by suspected Tiv youths.