Charlie Hebdo: Ghana’s French Embassy on high terror alert

The French Embassy in Ghana is on high alert as throngs of Muslims around the world hold protests against the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad by the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo.

In Niger, at least four people were killed in the southern town of Zinder, where protesters set fire to a French cultural centre and several churches and attacked Christian shops with clubs and Molotov cocktails, while police responded with tear gas.

In the wake of the deadly attacks in France and anti-terror raids in Belgium, security has been beefed up at the French Embassy in Accra, according to Radio Ghana.

“The number of policemen have increased and other plain-clothed special security personnel have been stationed” at the Kanda-based embassy to deter any possible attack, a source confirmed to Starrfmonline.com.

“The men are on the ground day and night,” the source added.

Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers are to meet in Brussels to discuss ways to boost cooperation to combat the threat posed by radicalised Europeans returning home after fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The meeting Monday comes as the bloc prepares for a special leaders' summit on February 12 dedicated to fighting terrorism.

With tensions heightened, the second gunman in the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine which killed 12 people was buried discreetly in an unmarked grave near Paris late Saturday in the hope that it would not become a pilgrimage site for radical Islamists.