Ghana-Burkina Faso establish Land Technical Committee to tackle boundary issues at Paga

Ghana and Burkina Faso boundary pillars in Paga in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region has been eclipsed by habitations.

Almost all the boundary pillars at the Paga border have encroached upon whiles some of the pillars are nowhere to be found.

At Sapeliga, a community in the Bawku West District, the activities of Youga Mining Company from Burkina Faso have affected the boundary pillars of the two countries.

This came to light when a team led by the National Coordinator of the Ghana Boundary Commission, Major-General Dr. Emmanuel Kotia held a meeting with a Burkinabe team led by the country’s Permanent Secretary of National Boundary Commission, Zagre Leontine in Paga.

The Burkina Faso–Ghana boundary extends over 600 km from the tripoint with Côte d’Ivoire in the west to the tripoint with Togo in the east, following a combination of rivers, watersheds, and straight-line segments.

Initially, delimited in general terms in an Anglo–French convention in 1898, the boundary was described in detail in Exchanges of Notes between France and Great Britain in 1904 and 1906. Demarcation first took place in 1904 and has been improved in stages over the years.

Despite some questions as to whether the demarcation precisely matches the textual definition of the boundary, there do not appear to be any disputes concerning the boundary.

At a meeting held in Paga aimed at finding a lasting solution to the boundary line issues, both countries agreed to set up a joint Ghana-Burkina Faso Land Technical Committee to resolve all existing land boundary issues between the two West African countries.

Speaking to Modernghana News after the meeting, the National Coordinator of the Ghana Boundary Commission, Major-General Dr. Emmanuel Kotia, expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the meeting.

He said both countries are on a common path to resolve the boundary line issues.

The Burkina Faso Permanent Secretary of National Boundary Commission, Zagre Leontine, assures her outfit readiness to collaborate with her counterparts in Ghana to find a lasting solution to the boundary line issue.

The two countries agreed not to allow the instant border issue to disturb the historic brotherly relations between them.

They said they have peacefully coexisted as neighbors, traded, farmed and married among themselves.

The next meeting will be held in Ouagadougou before the end of the year.