There are moments in a nation’s life when the right decision is made at precisely the right time. Ghana’s signing of a landmark Security and Defence Partnership with the European Union on March 24 and 25, 2026 in Accra is one such moment. It deserves not merely acknowledgement, but serious national reflection because the threats it is designed to counter are neither distant nor abstract, they are at our doorstep.
Ghana became the first African nation to enter this strategic framework, joining the ranks of partners that include the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan. The agreement, signed by Vice President Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang and EU High Representative, Kaja Kallas, establishes a structured platform for cooperation across counterterrorism, cyber security, maritime security, border management and conflict prevention.
A dedicated annual EU-Ghana Security and Defence Dialogue will guide its implementation. As part of the pact, Ghana had already received military equipment valued at €50 million under the European Peace Facility, including electronic warfare systems, explosive ordnance disposal equipment, drones and surveillance technology that will significantly enhance the operational readiness of the Ghana Armed Forces.
The timing could not be more critical. Our northern neighbours are in crisis. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, countries that share cultural, ethnic and geographic bonds with Ghana have fallen under military rule and are haemorrhaging lives to jihadist insurgencies with no end in sight.
The killing of Ghanaian traders in Burkina Faso, which the Vice President cited at the signing ceremony, is not an isolated tragedy, but a strong warning. Violence does not respect borders and the Sahel’s instability is migrating southward with alarming speed.
The statistics are sobering. Renowned security analyst Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, one of Ghana’s foremost voices on international relations, has noted that the Sahel now accounts for 56 percent of all global terrorist activity. Between 2012 and 2019, 70 percent of all terrorist attacks on the African continent occurred within the Sahel corridor alone.
The Global Terrorism Index recorded more terrorism-related deaths in the Sahel in 2022 than in South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa combined. This is not a regional footnote but a global emergency that is unfolding in our backyard.
Dr. Antwi-Danso has also offered a chilling analysis of how terrorism has evolved. The ideological motivations of earlier decades, he argues, are giving way to a far more dangerous religious fervour, one that exploits faith, manipulates the spiritually vulnerable and promises heavenly rewards for acts of mass murder.
Extremist recruiters are actively targeting young Africans through this warped religious propaganda, drawing them into networks that have turned the vast ungoverned spaces of the Sahel, stretching from Western Sahara to Somalia into what Dr. Antwi-Danso aptly describes as an arc of instability. The collapse of Gaddafi’s Libya in 2011, followed by the displacement of ISIS fighters from the Middle East created the conditions for this arc to form.
This is why The Chronicle firmly commends the government for securing this partnership. President John Dramani Mahama had already signalled Ghana’s security direction when he disclosed plans for an Electronic Security Warfare System at the Northern Command in Tamale. The establishment of new military camps in the Central Region and Western North further reflects a government that is reading the threat environment correctly. The EU pact consolidates these efforts within a credible international framework.
But hardware and international agreements, however vital, are only part of the answer. Dr. Antwi-Danso is right when he warns that terror thrives where insecurity festers and insecurity festers where historical grievances go unaddressed. Ghana has its own ethnic fault lines. The tensions among Kusasi, Mamprusi and Moshi communities in our northern regions are well documented. They must be managed proactively, not reactively.
Security, as President Mahama has himself acknowledged, cannot rest on the shoulders of the security services alone. It requires the active participation of citizens. The Chronicle, therefore, calls on government, state institutions and the media to urgently rekindle the “see something, say something” culture, and to back it with infrastructure.
Dedicated toll-free tip lines that are easily accessible and reliably monitored must be established and promoted nationally. Intelligence gathered on the ground by ordinary Ghanaians remains one of the most effective counterterrorism tools available. Ghana has earned a moment of pride. We are Africa’s first partner in this EU security framework. Let us now do the work to deserve that distinction.
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