Economic Community of West African States and Conflict Resolution

This research examined the efforts of Economic Community of West African States in Conflict Resolution in Mali between 2012-2022. In recent decades, Mali has been saddled with myriads of political and economic crisis due to coups, terrorist attacks, and separatist threats. ECOWAS been a sub- regional organization in the prevention, management and resolution of conflict stepped in to restore peace and stability. The objectives of the study were to examine the factors propelling conflicts in Mali; find out the conflict resolution mechanism utilized by ECOWAS in Mali, examine the effectiveness of the conflict resolution mechanism in managing conflict in Mali and investigate the challenges encountered by ECOWAS in conflict resolution in Mali. Findings showed that conflicts in Mali were driven by ethnic tensions, economic disparities, competition for resources, and foreign influence, and regional power dynamics. The ECOWAS conflict resolution mechanism contributed to stability in Mali, but did not achieve the desired results due to challenges such as insufficient regional consensus, divergent interests among member states, weak enforcement mechanisms, persistence grievances etc.