Ghana steps up measures to combat terrorism

Government has announced that it has put its state security and intelligence agencies on increased awareness following increasing terror attacks and worrisome intelligence reports closer to its borders.

The West African Region has in recent weeks been inundated with attacks by extremist elements some of which have occurred as close as 50 kilometers from Ghana’s northern frontiers.

As recently as May 11th, 2022, in Togo, about 15 assailants and 8 military personnel were killed during a terrorist attack.

Increasingly, intelligence reports suggest some Ghanaians have been involved in terrorist acts in the Sahel Region signaling the possible recruitment of Ghanaians by some of the terrorist groups in the West Africa sub region.

Addressing the Minister’s Press Briefing, a regular media engagement platform put together by the Ministry of Information in Accra on Sunday, May 22, 2022, Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the state security and intelligence apparatus has as a result of this heightened terrorism threats authorized an increased level of awareness among the intelligence community and seeks to deepen engagement with the Ghanaian public in line with contemporary security practices.

“We are therefore at this point specifically drawing the attention of persons in the Ghanaian jurisdiction to be more observant and vigilant about our security ecosystem and to draw the attention of Police, other security agencies and local community leaders, immediately they observe anything out of the ordinary,” he said.

This Minister Oppong Nkrumah announced that in the coming days the Ministry of National Security will be rolling out a full campaign aimed at mobilizing and providing persons in the jurisdiction with more security education.

The campaign dubbed “See Something, Say Something” spearheaded by the National Security Ministry and facilitated by the Ministry of Information is aimed at creating public awareness and sensitizing citizens on issues of National Security and empowering the citizenry to report suspicious activities that could potentially compromise the security of their communities.

Providing more details, Deputy National Security Coordinator, Edward Kweku Asomani said the campaign will be launched by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, at the Ministry of National Security as part of a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach to mitigating threats that confront the state.

He said it is expected that through this campaign and further education the Ministry will highlight the challenges in the sub-region regarding terrorism and other activities that threatens the security of the country and at the same time help increase awareness for such activities.

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