The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), an regional organization active at the sub-continental level, is made up of: [1]
Most were either French or British colonies, so the common languages of the region are French and English, with some Portuguese and Arabic. There are, of course, large numbers of indigenous languages.
These states also comprise the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) is a non-standing peace operations force that has operated in civil war in Sierra Leone and is a model for future needs. [2]