According to the West Africa Centre for Counter Extremism (WACCE), Ghana is prone to terrorist attack. This was contained in a report released by WACCE. The report said, more than 13 Ghanaians are believed to have travelled to fight with the terrorist groups since 2015.
“Up to twenty-three (23), others have been dissuaded from leaving to join extremist groups Ghana’s first recorded case was Nazir Alema Nortey, a young university graduate, who shockingly left the country in august 2015 to join ISIS before sending a message back to his parents to announce his newfound cause. He was killed in Syria in April 2016.
“Professor Kofi Awoonor, a renowned Ghanaian poet and academic, was killed in the West Gate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya when Al Shabab fighters besieged the mall in 2013.”
The threat has been menacingly and quickly spread, occurring through a spill over phenomenon, has ravaged the Northern borders of not only Burkina Faso but also of Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo recently. With all its direct neighbors under attacks, Ghana has descending from the Sahel towards Coastal States in the last five years.
It further said, even though the the fatality numbers are presently down from the peak of over 7,200 in the region in 2014, the threat has increased in complexity and geographical spread. Today 53% of all ECOWAS have now been encircled by the threat. These developments are dangerous for Ghana.
“Ghana’s proximity to these countries (Burkina Faso to the North, Benin and Togo to the East and Ivory Coast to the West) exposes the country to extremist recruitment or attacks or both.”
The report added that Ghana has over 352 unresolved chieftaincy conflicts. The protracted chieftaincy and ethnic conflicts in the border regions constitute a direct threat and opportunity for extremist exploitation.
The report ended by stating that, “but the overall effectiveness of Ghana’s response will be determined by the State’s willingness to recognise that the battle against terrorism and the drivers that underpin it cannot be won on the battlefield alone.
It will be won in the local community in dealing with the drivers of radicalization and building resilience against the threat. It will be won by effectively addressing grievances, mobilizing local community support and goodwill to build the social and economic.”
infrastructure that is required to build resilience
against extremism.
