The ECOWAS Council of Ministers has declared full support for Ghana’s petition to the African Union against xenophobia. The council has also given unconditional endorsement to the Accra Next Steps Commitments on Reparatory Justice.
This was revealed by Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who disclosed that he had been participating in the Council of Ministers meetings in Sierra Leone ahead of Sunday’s convening of the Authority of Heads of State and Government.
In a Facebook post, the minister commended the Council for its support, describing it as a significant show of solidarity from the region’s foreign ministers.
“We shall keep working tirelessly towards the attainment of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of a united, tolerant and prosperous Africa,” he said.
Ghana petitioned the African Union over xenophobic attacks on African nationals, particularly in South Africa, calling on the continental body to strengthen monitoring mechanisms and establish a formal fact-finding mission to investigate the root causes of the violence.
Diplomatic leaders have warned that such attacks jeopardise the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and undermine the broader spirit of Pan-Africanism.
The Council’s endorsement in Freetown comes days after Ablakwa held bilateral talks with Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye, on the sidelines of the summit, where both countries agreed to deepen cooperation against Afrophobia and push for the issue to be placed on the agenda of the next African Union Summit.
The Accra Next Steps Commitments on Reparatory Justice, which the Council also endorsed, emerged from a high-level conference held in Accra from June 17 to 19, 2026, bringing together heads of state, policymakers, legal experts and civil society groups to advance the global reparations agenda for Africans and people of African descent.
