Al-Qaeda plays chord of tribal conflict in Ghana

Ahmed Adel

Al-Qaeda is taking advantage of the tribal conflict in Ghana in West Africa to establish a foothold and expand its spread, as it is exploiting the dispute between the Kusasi and Mamprusi ethnic groups, which has been going on for many years and has left a large number of deaths and injuries in the Bawku region in the north of the country.

Local conflicts a breeding ground for terrorism

Local and regional conflicts are exploited by terrorist elements in their favor by recruiting young people as a result of poverty and ignorance.

In this context, Ghanaian Defense Minister Dominic Netiol said that the local ethnic conflict between the Mamprusi and the Kusasi in the northern city of Bawku increases the terrorist threat, explaining that the government will send five hundred additional soldiers to Bawku to support the forces there in an attempt to maintain peace and security.

Over the past year, terrorist elements affiliated with al-Qaeda launched about 1,470 attacks in Burkina Faso and northern Ghana, an increase of 26% compared to 2021, and those attacks resulted in 3,600 deaths.

Experts estimate that the local branch of al-Qaeda, known as Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), has control over 40% of the territory of Burkina Faso and its neighboring countries such as Togo, Benin and Ivory Coast.

The United States fears that Ghana will become a destination for terrorist elements affiliated with al-Qaeda, especially since the majority of the country’s 34 million people are Christians, while Muslims constitute a large percentage in the north of the country. There are also fears that al-Qaeda will control the revenues of the cocoa and gold trade and Atlantic ports, which would provide the organization with important material and strategic returns, as well as informal gold mines, which are abundant in northern Ghana.

Rearranging ranks

Dr. Nourhan Sharara, a researcher on African affairs, said that al-Qaeda is trying to rearrange its ranks in an attempt to re-establish itself after several losses in previous years, as is the habit of terrorist groups in exploiting internal and regional conflicts to enter the targeted areas.

In a special statement to the Reference, Sharara added that the ethnic conflict between the Mamprusi and Kusasi tribes in the northern city of Bawku created a fertile environment enabling al-Qaeda to recruit many young people.

She stressed that the second fear facing the Ghanaian authorities, and indeed the entire continent, is terrorist groups gaining control over the revenues of the cocoa and gold trade and the Atlantic ports, which provides the organization with important material and strategic returns, making Ghana a destination and incubator for extremists and terrorists.

Sharara noted that it must be taken into account that most of the population of Ghana, Christians and Muslims, are concentrated in the north only, and this could feed the presence of al-Qaeda, so the Ghanaian authorities must intensify efforts to resolve the internal armed tribal conflict, as well as cooperation with neighboring countries that are besieged by al-Qaeda, ISIS and other armed terrorist groups.