The regional bloc commissioner for human development and gender Adrienne Diop said this at a news conference on the ministerial conference on the implementation of the African Convention on Internally Displaced Persons in West Africa.
Out of the 27.5 million people, who were displaced in 2010 in Africa, 11.1 million were from the West African sub-region, Diop said.
"In Africa, 70 percent of the IDPs are concentrated in those countries that have been affected by conflicts, like in Sudan, DRC and Somalia," she added. "Some of these IDPs are linked to natural disasters, like in Benin Republic, where in 2009, 20,000 people were displaced due to floods in one day, among others," the commissioner told reporters. Diop said ECOWAS was seeking to address the issue of IDPs through the ministerial conference on the implementation of the African Convention on Internally displaced Persons in West Africa.
According to her, the meeting was to encourage member-countries discuss ratification of the AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance on Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention).
"The Kampala Convention set the stage for the first binding legal framework on humanitarian assistance and displaced persons, " she added.
"We felt that it was important that we in the region make sure that the 15 ECOWAS member-states sign and ratify the convention so it will come into force," she said.
"At the higher level, we decided that there should be a legal instrument," she said.
Diop said for the convention to be enforced, eight member countries had to ratify the document.
She added that only 15 countries out of the 53 African countries had ratified the convention with two (Sierra Leone and The Gambia) from the West African region.
Diop added that the conference would sensitize the various ECOWAS Ministers of Justice and ministers in charge of humanitarian affairs.
This, she said, would facilitate the ratification of the Kampala convention in member states.
The commissioner told reporters that the meeting would streamline and coordinate the activities of member countries in relation.
"The meeting would address the issue of coordination and put in place a system on evaluation and reporting, so we can get our figures right," she said.
This will help planning and requisite support, she added.
Diop said when the convention was ratified by member countries, the process of enforcing the requirements of the convention into law would. be completed within a year.
The ministerial meeting by the ECOWAS in collaboration with UNHCR was sponsored by the government of Finland.
The meeting, under the patronage of President Goodluck Jonathan, the ECOWAS chairman, will agree on a common roadmap to expedite the ratification and implementation of the Kampala Convention.
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