Ambassador Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, Ghana’s Special Envoy to the Alliance of Sahel States, has urged West African countries to assert their authority amid growing global competition over the region’s security and development interests.
He stated that nations in the sub-region must be allowed to engage with various international partners without becoming dependent on any single foreign power.
Speaking in Accra on Thursday, April 24, at the opening of a regional convening on foreign influence in West Africa and the official launch of the CDD-Ghana International Desk, Mr Gbevlo-Lartey called on external partners to respect the sovereignty of African governments and support locally owned democratic systems.
“West African nations would need to develop the capacity and indeed be left alone, to engage multiple international partners without becoming captured by any single foreign agenda,” he said.
He noted that the growing presence of competing global interests—often disguised as security or development partnerships—has made many countries in the region increasingly vulnerable, especially during times of democratic fragility.
The former National Security Coordinator stressed the importance of regional collaboration that upholds democratic governance and economic resilience.
He observed that some foreign actors deliberately undermine these values for their own gain.
“This would require… cooperation and coordination that ensure common democratic governance standards and regional economic resilience, which unfortunately tend to be the very tenets that some of our foreign partners target to weaken for benefit,” he cautioned.
The two-day event aims to deepen dialogue on the role of foreign actors in shaping democratic governance.
It also explores innovative approaches to counter malign influence, including the promotion of authoritarian governance models by external actors, the rise of right-wing parties in the global north, and the freeze or cuts in international aid—and their implications for governance, economic stability, and social development across Africa.
