West Africa Ivory Coast, and a succession of military coups in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Since the end of colonialism, the region has been the stage for some brutal conflicts, including: The Economic Community of West African States, established in May 1975, has defined the region of West Africa since 1999 as including the following 15 states: Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Western Africa includes the preceding states with the addition of Mauritania (which withdrew from ECOWAS in 1999), comprising an area of approximately 6.1 million square km. The UN region also includes the island of Saint Helena, a British overseas
Bahá'í Faith in Liberia country and began a Bahá'í school named the Bahá'í Academy. Granadan Hermione Vera Keens-Douglas Edwards and Jamaican Julius Edwards (Knight of Bahá'u'lláh for Ghana in 1953) moved to Liberia and Foster and others helped form the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly in 1958 in Monrovia. Mrs. Edwards served for many years under the Continental Board of Counsellors for Africa. In 1959 Muhammad Mustafa traveled to Liberia and was commissioned to explain some Muslim concerns about the Bahá'í Faith. This was ultimately published as There was a second assembly in Bomi Hills (see Tubmanburg) before 1963. In 1956, the western African