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The Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, has called on countries in West Africa to combine their strengths in order to ward off all terrorism activities in Burkina Faso and Mali.
That, he said, was because countries in the region, including Ghana, would suffer the brunt should the two West African countries fall to the ongoing terrorist activities there.
The Defence Minister explained that countries in the region must be prepared to take the responsibility to ensure that peace returned to Burkina Faso, Mali and the region in general as the United Nations (UN) withdrew its Peace Support Operations in December 2023.
Addressing a joint press conference between ministers of defence and foreign affairs from Ghana and Portugal in Accra yesterday (July 3), Mr Nitiwul said Ghana must collaborate with its counterparts in the region to ensure that the situation in Burkina Faso and Mali did not escalate.
“The last issue we discussed in the meeting was the withdrawal of the UN Peace Support Operations in the region which we should expect a surge in problems in Burkina Faso and Mali”.
“We should not leave these two countries to their fate, although the UN may be withdrawing their operations but individual countries in the region must ensure the issue does not escalate because any problem in the two countries, especially Burkina Faso, will directly affect Ghana,” he said.
The press conference was after a close door bilateral discussion between a Portuguese delegation, led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joao Gomes Cravinho, and Minister of Defence, Helena Carrieras, and its Ghanaian counterpart represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, and Mr Nitiwul.
The visit of the ministers is historic given that they are the highest-ranking government officials from Portugal to visit Ghana.
Their visit is in preparation for the state visit of President Akufo-Addo to Portugal in July 2023.
The Portuguese delegation is on a two-day working visit to Ghana and will hold other high-level meetings today.
Mr Nitiwul noted that terrorism was one of the potent threats facing the country, especially from the northern part of the West African region.
However, he said, the government had put in place strong measures to ensure that the country would be able to respond and ward off any terrorist attacks.
“And so, in the meeting I explained the role Ghana was playing in trying to ensure that we did not allow terrorism to take root in our country.
Yes, it is true that Ghana has not had any terrorist attack but it’s also because of what we are trying to put in place stronger measures to ward off any such attacks,” he added.
Ms Botchwey acknowledged the historical links between the two countries which dated back to the 15th Century when Portuguese sailors first landed on the shores of Elmina in the Gold Coast, now Ghana, while formal diplomatic relations were established in 1975.
She said the meeting discussed the need to expand Ghana’s frontiers in relations and cooperation with Portugal, both at the bilateral and multilateral levels.
At the bilateral level, Ms Botchwey said the two parties agreed on the potential for trade and economic cooperation and urged the private sectors of both countries to come together to explore possible avenues for cooperation in various sectors of the economy.
“This is in support of the government's programmes such as Planting for Food and Jobs and its overall transformation agenda to promote economic growth and employment generation to help address the rising youth unemployment,” she added.
Ms Carrieras pledged the support of the Portugal Government to help Ghana and its counterpart in the West African sub-region to defeat terrorism in all forms.
“Portugal has a lot of experience in combating terrorism, particularly with Mozambique, where its expertise was laid to bear to defeat terrorism; and so, working together we can deal with the threat facing Ghana and the sub-region,” he said.
The Portuguese minister of defence said the two countries would soon sign a defence agreement to help serve as a blueprint to support Ghana’s quest to help deal with the emerging insurgents of terrorists in the Sahel region.
