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1 Introduction The various low-intensity and deadly conflicts going on in Africa have serious implications for development and it is imperative that long lasting solutions are sought. Given that these conflicts raged on and off for many years inthe West African sub-region, for example in Liberia, Sierra Leone and in the Casamance region of Senegal, it is time for African leaders and various stakeholders to begin designing sustainable solutions to these conflicts. It is to the Mano River Union (MRU) that this enquiry principally focuses on, though other parts of West Africa with long-standing or recurrent conflicts are also examined. The MRU was established in 1973 with the objective of achieving economic integration amongst the member countries of the Union. The Union aimed to establish a customs union amongst the member states, but, rather than achieving this aim, it has been bedevilled by intractable conflicts beginning from the early 1990s. Perhaps it is time to consider a long term solution to the situation, by designing peace-building initiatives and implementing these in a collaborative manner. In West Africa, there have been alarming incidences of medium and high intensity conflicts with the attendant consequences of deaths, instability, displacements and refugees. This situation has given rise to serious breakdown of law and order in many societies, bringing in its wake immense insecurity and human suffering of grave dimensions, especially in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and even in Côte d’Ivoire. The fairly common view of many statesmen and scholars especially in the west, of cases of virtual state collapse and incapacity to engender development in Africa require that serious attention be focused on how to permanently address the incessant and unending civil wars in the sub-region as the situation has contributed significantly to Africa’s inability to really embark on the path of development. Osita Agbu 2 West Africa is indeed quite varied in terms of the political composition of countries in the sub-region. Note for instance, the differences in size, the differences in colonially inherited languages and norms, in levels of economic endowment and development, and the diversity of external linkages1 . There are sixteen countries in West Africa, while nine are collectively referred to as Franco-phone; five are Anglophone and two Lusophone. However, Mauritania pulled out of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the umbrella economic and political organization in the sub-region leaving fifteen countries. Such a mixture of colonial tutelage and experiences led to a situation in which diverse regional multilateral co-operation arrangements and institutions emerged after the independence period of the 1960s. The problem this has created in recent times is the difficulty of co-ordinating peace efforts and regional corporation in the region. The existing conflicts with roots in a multiplicity of factors- historical, political, economic as well as ecological/ environmental and ethnic/communal create and recreate contradictions and cleavages that have simply refused to recede or abate. The ‘Post-cold war’ transition period has been significantly characterised by the drive towards democratisation on the one hand, and the re-emergence of ethnic nationalism on the other. Both of which have contributed significantly to exacerbating some of the low-intensity conflicts in the region, an example of which is the Nigerian case. This is neither to say that democracy is undesirable nor a justifiable end in itself.2 Since the end of the cold war, conflicts have been increasingly intra-state rather than inter-state in nature. Oftentimes, these conflicts involve a very high level of brutality, mostly against civilians, and often by both conventional and unconventional forces, and methods.3 Sometimes these conflicts spill across national borders, either in the form of combatants exporting the wars, or refugees seeking safe havens outside the theatre of war thus leading to sub-regional insecurity and, therefore demanding a sub- regional resolution effort rather than just a national solution. It is significant to note that of 82 medium to high intensity conflicts between 1992 and 1995 which involved the loss of at least 1000 lives, all but three were intrastate conflicts or civil wars.4 Also, of a hundred armed conflicts around the world between 1990 and the year 2000, all but six occurred within states.5 There is little doubt that democratisation has in recent times created new opportunities as well as new uncertainties. These uncertainties have sometimes led to serious disputes. In some instances, like in Nigeria, democracy and democratisation have instead of releasing the necessary energies...

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