APA-Accra (Ghana) The onslaught by jihadists in Burkina Faso has been cause for worry for many in neighbouring Ghana where alarms bells over a possible spillover have hit decibels higher than usual.
Save for a metal barrier serving as the official dividing structure guiding travelers moving on both sides of the border divide nothing really separates the town of Paga (Ghana) from the town of Dakola in southern Burkina Faso.
These two almost juxtaposed towns serve as a tribute to the principle of the free movement of peoples, goods and other services between Ghana and Burkina Faso.
However, there are other far less innocent activities in the same area belonging to the smugglers’ underworld which security minders fear is already playing into the hands of the jihadists in Burkina Faso who have been blamed for the indiscriminate killing and maiming of civilians and the disruption of economic life in the region.
Sources say arms have been spilling across the border, raising concern that the Burkinabe insurgency spreading into northern Ghana was only a matter of when and not if.
Like most of Africa, the porous nature of the border between Ghana and its immediate neighbour to the north has in the best of times been game for smugglers of all kinds of contraband items.
And these disparate smuggling syndicates have in the space of a few years morphed into a harrying network of weapons smugglers who more often than not have come into contact with the jihadists who according to intelligence may be looking to extend their spheres of operations to other nearby states.
Ghana sits precariously at the peripheries of this possible expansion and may therefore be wary of the prospect of being caught up in the seemingly endless cycle of jihadist violence from which it has been decidedly insulated until this point.
With the insurgency in Burkina Faso extending its reach outside the country’s southern borders into the territory of its maritime neighbour, Ghana’s security complex has been lift with something to think about.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo could not have summed up his country’s apprehension better when he told Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during the US-Africa summit last December that the insurgency in Burkina Faso was attracting other protagonists closer to Ghana’s borders, a situation which he described as worrisome.
Although his words had rubbed the junta in Ouagadougou the wrong way, causing a diplomatic row with Accra, it was clear that the insurgency in Burkina Faso was being felt closer to his country- in fact too close to be of any comfort to his administration and for ordinary Ghanaians living in and around towns like Paga.
Towns can be used to horde and transport weapons which insurgents can use to launch raids on their targets wherever they choose to strike.
Refugees who have fled the bloody jihadist violence in southern Burkina Faso are not returning to their villages anytime soon given the continuing spread of the violence.
Many taking refuge a few kilometres from the border fear that the jihadists may catch up with them in their new homes once again.
Fearing that the jihadist expansion being witnessed in Gulf of Guinea states like Togo, Ivory Coast and Benin the authorities in Ghana appear very swift on the security uptake.
Stephen Yakubu, the minister for Ghana’s Upper East Region says, the government was not taking chances and has strengthened its security presence along the borders it shares with these jihadist-infested nations which have been described as the new frontline.
He says Ghana will not allow the marauding jihadists to divide the country based on ethnicity and use it to sow the seeds of anarchy.
‘‘That is why we are beefing security along all our borders’’, Yakubu points out.
Meanwhile Awal Ahmed Kariama, the Ghanaian who heads the non-profit rights watchdog Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment as CEO says the overriding need now is to orientate young minds away from extremism of whatever kind.
His NGO has since take the frontline in targeting young people near the border with a view to discouraging them from entertaining thoughts about joining jihadists operating a few kilometres into Burkinabe territory.
His message to people living in the border town of Paga is to be the guardians of their own security by being vigilant against the penetration of extremism in the guise of religious dogmas.
Carrying the notoriety of border towns, Paga is suspected to be a possible route through which the insurgents in Burkina Faso smuggle the weapons they use to prosecute their insurgency.
Although the Ghanaian government has been repeatedly downplaying incursions in the north of the country since 2021 as anything but extremist forays, it has been forced to acknowledge that such violence may be more real than imagine in the near future.
Speaking to a local TV in Ghana, renowned security analyst Adib Saani believes that the threat from insurgents is closer than being acknowledged by the state.
He says it is worrisome that the militants may find the influx of tens of thousands of refugee from Burkina Faso as a convenient cover to infiltrate the country and extend their reach beyond their current theatre of operations.
WN/as/APA