West Africa Region, ground for extremist recruitment, radicalisation – NOSPWECO

The Ghana Chapter for Network on Peace and Security for Women in the Economic Community of West Africa (NOSPWECO), has expressed worry about the prevalent danger of violent extremism and the growing proximity of threat in the sub-region.

According to the chapter, West African countries had become a region of sustained extremist violence in the last eight years, as the threat of violent extremist towards the coastal states, faced potential extremist recruitment and radicalization.

The President for NOPSWECO-Ghana, Miss Euphemia Akos Dzathor, who made this remark Tuesday at a press conference in Accra said, already attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger had increased fivefold since 2016, with more than 4,000 deaths reported in 2019.

“More than 4 million have been displaced across the Sahel and 1.2 million displaced in Burkina Faso in 2020 alone.

Ghana’s proximity to Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mali and Niger attacks  had led many to predict that, the country could be among the next target in the region, as more than 12 young Ghanaians had been reportedly recruited by ISIS and other extremist groups,” Mrs Dzathor said.

She added that, more than 532 prolonged unresolved chieftaincy conflicts in Northern Ghana, as well as political vigilante violence and intra-religious clashes, made the teaming unemployed youth vulnerable to violent extremism.

Miss Dzathor added that, statistics from the Global Terrorism Index 2020 indicates that, 73 per cent of all terrorism deaths in 2020 occurred in countries already experiencing conflicts.

“We believe that the success of preventing violent extremism will be hard to achieve without the full participation of civil society group and local community members including women,” Miss Dzathor said.

She noted that, NOPSWECO-Ghana would for the next six weeks commence community engagement, radio and television discussions and make use of videos and digital tools to enhance awareness.

“The best way to deal with the threat is to prevent it from happening in the first place. We therefore call on the media, government, civil society and all stakeholders to make it a priority to work together to build resilience against violent extremism and ensure that Ghana remains a stable and peaceful country,” she said.

BY BERNARD BENGHAN & BELINDA AMOSA