Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur on Sunday evening returned from Abuja, the capital of Nigeria after attending an extraordinary Heads of State and Government summit that discussed the political situation in Mali and Guinea Bissau.
He told journalists on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport, in Accra that the summit maintained the use of dialogue in resolving the crisis, but also considered military intervention as an option.
The Heads of State Summit followed a recent UN Security Council Resolution 2071 of 12 October, and the Communiqué of the 339th meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) of 24 October.
These mandated urgent political actions by the UN Secretary General, ECOWAS and the AU towards a full resolution of the crises in Mali and Guinea Bissau, with military intervention.
The summit reiterated its instruction to the ECOWAS Commission to maintain the standby force in a high state of readiness for imminent deployment and urged Member States to concretize their commitments to provide military and logistical contributions to the ECOWAS military efforts.
On the situation in Guinea Bissau, Vice President Amissah-Arthur said the summit renewed its appeal to Member States to extend financial assistance to the Government of Guinea Bissau and called on the International Community to ease the sanctions imposed on the country to alleviate the suffering of the people.