WANEP-Ghana implements early warning system in five Regions of Ghana

Accra, April 13, GNA - The West Africa Network for Peace (WANEP)- Ghana is implementing early warning system in five Regions of Ghana. The group also publishes quarterly security brief that constitutes sharing of key peace, and security challenges in the country based on systematic monitoring and reporting of incidents. A statement issued in Tamale and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday, said the January-March quarterly report highlighted three main issues that posed security threat to the country.

These are armed attacks, road accidents and cholera outbreak. It said the report drew attention of the Government and other relevant stakeholders to the issues with the view of stimulating mitigating actions. The statement said GHANA-WARN system recorded six cases of armed attacks on the Tamale-Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla-Wa and the Eastern Corridors of the Northern region highways mostly perpetrated by pastoralists. In one operation following a six-month crime pattern analysis of armed robberies at Ashalley Botwe, Obojo, Agbogba and Ablor-Adjei - all suburbs of Accra, five persons were arrested by the Police. The operations carried out by the security services, retrieved 60 locally manufactured pistols from the suspects in Accra (Madina), Kumasi, Ashanti Region (Kordie, near Ofinso) and Western Region (Juabeso).

"The records show that these incidents are being fueled by the manufacture and proliferation of small arms and light weapons throughout the country," it added. According to the GHANA-WARN records, from January to March 2011, WANEP-Ghana registered 14 road accidents, eight occurred in January and three each in February and March 2011. Media reports also indicated that about 539 accidents involving 764 vehicles occurred in January alone nationwide. These accidents resulted in about 123 deaths and 518 injuries. The statement said another alarming health hazard recorded was the cholera outbreak, which the health authorities reported have so far killed about 34 people in the Central, Eastern and Greater Accra Regions. According to the health authorities, a total of 1,396 cholera cases have so far been recorded in the three Regions. "Given the high death rate and easy spread of cholera, it is a health threat to the entire country if efforts at curbing the situation are not stepped up," the statement said. In the face of these threats, GHANEP as a matter of urgency urged mobile phone companies to fulfill their corporate social responsibility and extend their services to communities where armed robbers were beginning to relocate their operations to because of lack of telephone services.

It called on the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, the Department of Vehicle Licensing Authority, the Highways Authority, to prosecute offending drivers who flouted the road safety regulations (including the use of on the spot fines) on the highways, disallow non-road worthy vehicles on the roads, and ensure appropriate and enough road signs were mounted to direct drivers using the roads. The statement stressed the need to encourage Road Safety Committees to increase their road safety campaigns all year round in order to ensure discipline on the roads. It appealed to the Ghana Police Service to increase its patrols to locations on the roads which had no available telephone networks. WANEP-Ghana called on the Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ghana Water and Sanitation Agency, and other bodies to deliver basic services and step up public education campaigns to control the cholera outbreak in the country. Through the Department for International Development and Christian Aid, WANEP-Ghana hosted Early Warning Centre tracks conflict/human security incidents and situations across the country through various structures and tools. The statement urged the public to report incidents of human security concern through the following options:- By Phone Call - (Toll free: 080010029 or Hotline: 0201131885). By SMS (to Short Code 1443). How to send SMS: - type GNP (leave space) followed with the message and then send to 1443.