AU Mission commends Ghana alertness against terrorism

An African Union Mission has commended Ghana’s Security Services for collaborating effectively with their regional and international partners to arrest and prosecute on numerous occasions, individuals who posed terrorist threats in the West Africa sub-region.

The Mission, however, noted that the geographical location of Ghana put it at the crossroad of a number of the region’s conflicts, such as the conflict in Mali and the spillover effect of the Libyan crisis.

The Mission, the Africa Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT) Evaluation Mission to the Republic of Ghana, acknowledged the threat of terrorism as being very serious in the Sahel Saharan Region, with the presence of insurgent groups, nationalist groups, Jihadist extremist groups and elements of international terrorism.

At the end of a five-day evaluation to Ghana last week, the ACSRT noted, over the weekend, that all the institutions the members of the Mission visited were very aware of the terrorist threat to the Africa Continent and to Ghana, and had taken steps to adjust to this reality and to successfully confront the scourge of terrorism.

Mr Iddris Mounir Lallali, Deputy Director of the ACSRT told a media conference in Accra that the Centre noted that Ghana was making progress in order to harmonise national legislation and to bring it in line with international counter terrorism instrument ratified by Ghana.

“Similar efforts are also being made in order to strengthen bilateral, regional and international co-operation in the prevention and combating of terrorism,” Mr Lallali said.

The need for the inspection becomes more pointed in the wake of the resurgence of terrorist attack in recent times, the latest being the Westgate attack in Kenya, which claimed the life of Ghanaian literary luminary Prof Kofi Awoonor.

The ACSRT inspection is also in pursuant of the 2002 AU Plan of Action on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism.