The Catholic Bishop of Sunyani Diocese and President of the Ghana Catholic Bishop Conference (GCBC), Most Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, has called for a collective approach to dealing with threats to national security.
The bishop observed that Ghana’s porous borders with neighbours Burkina Faso, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire expose the country to threats of terrorist attacks, hence the need for everybody to be vigilant.
Most Rev. Gyamfi made the call on behalf of the Ghana Catholic Bishop Conference at a regional dialogue session on trending conflicts in the Bono Region in Sunyani.
The dialogue was in line with the Sahel Peace Initiative project being implemented by the National Catholic Secretariat, with funding from the Catholic Relief Services, a non-governmental organisation.
The one day session on the theme: “Trending Conflicts in Ghana, Fertile Grounds for Violent Extremism: A Call for Action”, was attended by traditional leaders, religious bodies, security services, youth groups, policy implementers, trade associations and Senior High School students.
Most Rev. Gyamfi said the safety and security of the country must be the concern of all people and called for a commitment towards a safer and a more peaceful country.
He advised that everybody must play his or her part to help foster peace, stability and social cohesion. “Ghana is a small country and anything that happens anywhere affects all of us”, he said.
The Bono Regional Minister Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, said security challenges such as perennial chieftaincy conflicts, land disputes and litigations, illegal mining, high unemployment rate and activities of nomadic Fulani herdsmen threaten the peace and stability of the region.
That notwithstanding, she said the region remains one of the three most peaceful regions in the country and commended the security services for maintaining the prevailing peace in the area.
Madam Owusu-Banahene said the region’s proximity to Cote d’Ivoire is also another threat, saying though official borders are located at Dormaa-Ahenkro and Sampa, unapproved ones are spread in parts of Dormaa Municipality and Jaman North District respectively.
She, therefore, called on everybody to join the “See Something Say Something” campaign and “provide the security agencies with information about people with questionable characters and strange movements to help avert any possible violent or terrorist attack in the region”.
