By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Pusiga (U/E), Feb 10, GNA – The Community Development and Advocacy Centre (CODAC), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) is implementing a pilot project dubbed”, Women Against Violent Extremism (WAVE)” in some border districts in the Upper East Region.
The districts include the Bawku West, Binduri and Pusiga, all under the Kusaug Traditional Area targeted as part of efforts to prevent violent extremists who operate in neighbouring countries such Burkina Faso from entering the country through those border districts.
The project, sponsored by the Common Wealth Development Organisation, under British High Commission in Ghana, is expected to enhance capacities of at least 540 young men and women in 12 border communities to detect and respond to early warning indicators.
As part of the project implementation, community volunteers would be formed and their capacity built and will be linked up with WANEP-Ghana and the security agencies to enable them report on incidents on violent extremism their respective communities.
It was also to strengthen collaboration between major stakeholders at the various communities and districts of the project to jointly work at preventing violent extremism.
Speaking at separate inception meetings organised by CODAC at Bawku West, Binduri and Pusiga Districts, Mr Issahaku Bukari, Programme Manager, CODAC, said since 2019, cross-border incidents had confirmed attempts by Violent Extremist Organizations (VEOs) to infiltrate Ghana, particularly from the Central Region of Burkina Faso, which shares borders with Ghana’s Upper East Region.
“Extremist activities in Ghana’s Bawku, Widnaba, and Nazinga forest have been confirmed, with Burkinabe fighters from Boulgou province in Burkina Faso involved in the conflict. Arms are allegedly being smuggled from Burkina Faso into Ghana, but no links with terrorist cell have been proven yet” he stressed.
The Programme Manager stated that violent extremism had gender dimensions, making it crucial to have gender-focused initiatives to prevent and counter it and explained that it was against this background that the project was gender-based focus.
He said that despite the numerous local and national violent extremism programs in Ghana, there was no women-focused project aimed at raising awareness of threats of violent extremists, vulnerabilities, and ways to protect women and girls.
“Women and girls in the Kusuang Traditional Area and tribes in Burkina Faso and Togo are more likely to fall into VEOs than embark on hazardous journeys abroad due to uncertain financial and economic rewards in undertaking the latter.
Their strong cross-border social bonds can be exploited by extremist groups to recruit more women and girls in Ghana into VEOs,” he intimated.
The WAVE in border communities project aims to address gender-specific threat gaps by raising awareness of women and girls’ vulnerability to manipulations, implementing recruitment strategies, targeting gender-specific radicalisation processes, and facilitating women and girls’ deployment and activities within VEOs
The inception meeting attracted stakeholders including Queen mothers, representatives of women groups, youth groups, Ghana Immigration Service, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), the Police and Opinion leaders. They are expected to collaborate to help fight violent extremis.
The leadership of the security agencies lauded the project and stated that to sustain it, the implementation should be extended to more years to help make a greater impact.
GNA