West African leaders meet in the capital of Burkina Faso on September 14, 2019.

:: West African leaders announced during a summit in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital on Saturday, a billion-dollar plan to fight the rising problem of extremist violence in the region.

The plan, to be funded from 2020 to 2024, was announced at end of the Economic Community Summit of West African States in Ouagadougou, where ECOWAS nations were joined by Mauritania and Chad.

ECOWAS had decided to mobilize “the financial resources of up to a billion dollars for the fight against terrorism,” said Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou.

The money, paid into a common fund, would help reinforce the military operations of the nations involved – and those of the joint military operations in the region.

Full details of the plan would be presented to the next ECOWAS summit in December.