ECOWAS countries  and Mauritania will soon see their cybersecurity and cybercrime skills improve. They benefit from a €7.5 million project funded by the EU and Germany. The German Cooperation Agency  (GIZ) and Expertise France will provide technical support.

The European Union (EU) and the German Federal Government contribute their expertise to the state economic community de <a href="javascript:void(0);">Winter africa (ECOWAS)  in improving  cybersecurity and combating cybercrime. €7.5 million has been mobilised to help the 15 ECOWAS member  countries and Mauritania better combat cybercrime.

The money will be invested, among other things, in strengthening information infrastructures  ; improving  legislation in this area, in accordance with regional, continental and international conventions; training human resources in charge of the fight against cybercrime.

On October 30, 2020, the 3 partners officially launched their collaboration, which is part of the project "Organised Crime: West African response to Cybersecurity and fight against Cybercrime" (OCWAR-C). It is one of the components of the "Organized Crime: West African Response" (OCWAR) initiative, which also includes the OCWAR-T (fight against trafficking) and OCWAR-M (fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism) projects.

The OCWAR-C project runs until 2022-2023. The German International Cooperation Agency  (GIZ) and Expertise France (EF) will technically support the ECOWAS Commission  and its agencies in its implementation.