Upper East and Burkina Faso to fight smuggling and highway robbery

Bolgatanga, Nov 13, GNA - Upper East Region and the Central South Region of Burkina Faso will collaborate to fight smuggling, movement of small arms, drug trafficking and highway robbery.

They said small arms posed security threat in the sub-region and th= at some conflicts thrived on the current lose trend in detecting arms and ammunition smuggled in and out of the neighbouring countries. While the Upper East Region is also concerned about the smuggling of=

fuel to neighbouring countries including Burkina Faso, the Central South Region of Burkina Faso is worried about the unregulated movement of their=

livestock into Ghana. The two regions agreed to cooperate with each other and share information on criminals and highway robberies to facilitate arrests. Representatives of both neighbouring regions came to the agreement after a meeting in Bolgatanga, presided over by the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo, and the Minister of the Central South Region of Burkina Faso, Mr. Raymond Edouard Ouedraogo. The two parties discussed issues on the movement of goods and people= , trans-border and road security, health, education, agriculture, commerce, twinning of cities and municipalities and the environment.

The two regions agreed to collaborate in the fight against unpatriotic and harmful practices such as trade in counterfeit goods and pirated works, the use of the West African corridor for dumping of such goods and the importation of unwholesome food and fake drugs.

They also agreed to check on the illegal sale of agro-chemicals that are sometimes misused by farmers and share information on cattle rustlers who take advantage of the numerous unapproved routes to move in and out of the two countries without being noticed by border officials.

On environment and health, both parties agreed that they would ensur= e that bye-laws on the environment are enforced and community chiefs in the=

Upper East Region involved in the management of bush fires as done in Burkina Faso. They also agreed that the buffer-zone rule be enforced to ensure that=

farmers leave a distance of 100 metres from rivers and other water bodies=

when farming. They said they had to fix the same days for immunization at the bord= er towns and communities to prevent infections from neighbours and encourage=

frequent meetings of health personnel from the two countries to discuss a= nd exchange ideas on issues of interest. Mr. Woyongo expressed satisfaction at the good relationship between the two regions and said almost all the districts in the Upper East Region ha= d established sister-city relationship with counterparts in Burkina Faso. He said the friendship would improve cooperation in agriculture, commerce, movement of goods and services and health status in the two countries. Mr. Ouedraogo stressed on the need for unity, saying that the people= in both regions had a lot in common and should continue to collaborate.