Ghana faces growing threat from Sahel extremists and maritime crime - CDS

Ghana's Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General William Agyapong, has cautioned that violent extremist groups active in the Sahel are pushing further into West Africa and edging closer to Ghana's borders.

Delivering remarks on behalf of the Deputy Defence Minister, Ernest Brogya Gyenfi, at the 50th Anniversary Republic Day Public Lecture held at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Teshie, Lt Gen. Agyapong said the security landscape across the region had shifted considerably and now demanded swift, joined-up action.

According to the Defence Chief, extremist factions have already established a presence in the northern territories of countries neighbouring Ghana and are steadily moving south. He noted that Ghanaians have not been spared the fallout, pointing to traders who lost their lives in Titao as an example.

Turning to the country's coastline, Lt Gen. Agyapong flagged growing maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea, warning that criminal syndicates operating at sea are becoming more closely tied to broader organised crime networks and to the financing of extremist activity.

He referenced attacks on Ghanaian fishermen, including the theft of outboard motors and incidents in which crews were left stranded at sea, calling this pattern a direct threat to Ghana's blue economy and its coastal communities.

Lt Gen. Agyapong described Ghana as caught between two escalating threats—violent extremism advancing from the Sahel in the north and maritime crime intensifying in the Gulf of Guinea to the south—and argued that this dual challenge must now be treated as a national planning priority.

He revealed that the government is in the process of retooling the Ghana Armed Forces, with a focus on reinforcing border security, expanding maritime surveillance and improving overall operational readiness.

The Defence Chief further called for stronger cooperation among policymakers, security specialists and academic institutions, and urged officers undergoing training to build strategic and ethical leadership skills to meet emerging security demands.

He concluded that the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College must keep evolving to stay ahead of new security challenges, characterising the Sahel situation as "a warning" and the Gulf of Guinea threat as "riding the storm."