Terrorism: Ghana prepares to face
Audio 03:32
Training exercise for Ghanaian soldiers by the French Elements in Senegal, in Asutsuare, April 29, 2021. © RFI / Charlotte Idrac
Text by: Charlotte Idrac Follow
11 mins
In West Africa, the countries of the Gulf of Guinea fear a jihadist contagion.
The presence of terrorist cells in southern Burkina Faso worries the border states: Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo and Ghana.
In this context, Ghana, an English-speaking country surrounded by French-speaking neighbors, is deepening its military cooperation with Paris.
Forty soldiers from the country's elite units have just completed urban combat training, provided by the French Elements stationed in Senegal (EFS).
Publicity
Read more
From our special correspondent in Accra,
It is pitch black. A small group of soldiers advance discreetly between the buildings of a hotel complex. Everything is silent, the Ghanaian commandos communicate only by gestures. This evening takes place the final exercise of "local combat". The two-week course took place in Asutsuare, about 100 kilometers from Accra, the Ghanaian capital. The trainers come from the French Elements in Senegal (EFS), which crisscross the region with the mission of sharing their operational know-how. Captain Jean-François details the maneuver: “
Tonight, the goal is to seize an objective in which an enemy has been detected. About ten Ghanaian personnel will put themselves in support, so that a second group will then succeed in seizing the position and destroying the enemy.
A fairly simple but very realistic exercise, in which Ghanaian commandos participate.
Some have already been engaged on the northern border of their country or in UN peacekeeping operations in Mali or Lebanon. They know that their Ghana could face a jihadist attack tomorrow. “
The rise of terrorism is a threat that must be anticipated. We would like never to be confronted with it, but as a soldier, you have to train hard to be ready, and if it happens here, to be able to defend our nation and our people
”, explains Staff Sergeant Delali of the armed forces. Ghanaian. In the exercise, under blank bullet fire, a soldier made up with fake blood simulates an injury. Tourniquet tourniquet, compression bandage. Every second counts for first aid in combat. "
It's concrete, like in the field
", Affirms the corporal-master Abdul Karim,"
these reflexes, we will not forget them
".
Northern border surveillance
Ghana has never been targeted on its soil, but the risk is real and the authorities are aware of it, says Levinia Addae Mensah, program director of Wanep, the West African Peacebuilding Network, in Accra. : “
Over the past two years, we have seen that the threat of violent extremism is approaching, with attacks sometimes taking place less than 10 km from our border with Burkina Faso.
There have also been recent events in Côte d'Ivoire.
In Ghana, state agencies have made the issue of extremism a priority, seeking solutions to put in place mechanisms to mitigate its effects.
"
Defense cooperation is recent between Ghana and France. This is a request from the Ghanaian authorities, explains Anne-Sophie Avé, French Ambassador to Accra: “
Ghana was one of the last West African countries with which France had no defense cooperation. . In 2019, after President Nana Akufo-Addo's visit to Paris, a letter of intent was signed to start cooperation in this area with France. The Ghanaians had been particularly impressed by the way in which we had proceeded to the
release of the hostages of the park of Pendjari
(in the north of Benin, in May 2019, Editor's note), she
underlines.
This served as a trigger, both on the taking into account of a terrorist risk that could approach their area, but also the need to benefit from this expertise and this quality of French intervention, from this "French touch". in defense.
We consider that cooperation should be based on intelligence, and then develop on operational intervention capabilities, whether in urban areas or in various specialties such as shooting, first aid or mine clearance.
"
Intelligence
As early as 2017, Ghana and its French-speaking neighbors - Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo - launched
the Accra Initiative
, a mechanism intended to strengthen cooperation.
“
Terrorists are upon us and we do not face the threat of conventional war.
The priority must be the sharing of information with our neighbors.
We are all concerned, we must exchange information.
It works, but it could be improved,
”said Lieutenant-Colonel Luri, Deputy Special Forces Advisor at the Ghanaian Armed Forces General Staff.
Training exercise for Ghanaian soldiers by the French Elements in Senegal, in Asutsuare, April 29, 2021. © RFI / Charlotte Idrac
However, the Sahelian experience proves that to prevent jihadist contagion, the response cannot be solely a security one. “Community organizations must be included in prevention and awareness-raising, but it will also be necessary to consolidate certain capacities and strengthen resilience, to avoid recruitments, so that the populations do not support the jihadists. The State must find the means to be in partnership with the civil society to carry out a strategy of prevention. As part of an early warning system, indicators can help signal threats from violent extremism. Sometimes people sense that things are happening, but they don't know what to do with the information.It will be necessary to set up frameworks for consultation and dialogue at the community level where individuals feel sufficiently safe, to be able to share sensitive information related to acts or threats. This will allow security agencies to gather intelligence, ”concludes Levinia Addae-Mensah of Wanep.
Graduation ceremony
Return to Asutsuare.
End of the training provided by the French Elements in Senegal.
Commander Damien is satisfied.
The exercise took place in good conditions.
In Dakar, he is the deputy of the regional cooperation unit of the EFS.
For him, the French approach complements the training of other foreign partners.
Israel, the United States and Great Britain are also present in Ghana through training in security or defense.
"
We are building a wall and everyone is laying their brick on it,
" admits the French officer.
"
In the Western camp, we have more or less the same ways of working, the same objectives, and we all follow NATO standards, but of course each has its own paw, and it is therefore complementary.
We present the Ghanaian military to the French method and then they will see how they can adapt our processes.
The Ghanaian soldiers are in the drafting phase of their concept of special forces, so they are looking to take what is best in the different units - foreign - in order to then be able to build their doctrine.
»Other internships are planned until the end of the year.
The goal: that the trained elements in turn become formators.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Ghana
Terrorism
France
Defense