Security Alert! The Top 20 Conflict Zones In Upper West

A conflict Desk Study conducted by the Upper West Regional Peace Council has identified high concentration of conflicts in 20 spots in five municipal and district assemblies in the region.

Eight of these hotspots are in the Sissala East Municipality, with the Wa Municipality having six of such places of significant activity of violence.

Sissala West has four, while Nandom and Jirapa Districts have one each. The remaining six districts in the region were found to have no conflict hotspot.

Maulivi Mohammed Bin Salih, a Member of the National Peace Council (NPC) Governing Board, made this known during the inauguration of a 13-member Regional Peace Council.

He described the situation as worrying and said it could disturb the relative peace in the area.

'These situations when allowed to degenerate into violent conflicts will deal a devastating blow to the peace as well as the socio-economic development of our region.'

He added that 'under such sordid conflicts situation, funds earmarked for development projects such as schools and hospitals are rather diverted to maintain security'.

He spoke of how in 2007, the government and civil society organisations realised that if concrete efforts were not made to contain violence and resolve the many conflicts confronting the nation, development efforts would stalled, came up with a national plan for peace-building.

It was on the basis of this that the national architecture for peace was conceived - the need arose for an independent alternate mechanism outside the traditional legal and constitutional processes for conflict prevention, resolution and peace-building in the country.

Maulivi Salih said despite Ghana's relative peace and stable democracy, 'we are confronted with numerous chieftaincy disputes, religious conflicts, land conflicts, and recently, youth uprising, inter-security services disputes, and many others in our region'.

Alhaji Sullemana Alhassan, the Regional Minister, said the area was relatively peaceful and attributed the comparative stability to the proactive work of security agencies and commitment to maintain law and order.

He said the municipal and district security councils' had been tasked to ensure peace in their areas under their jurisdiction.

The new Regional Peace Council members include the Reverend Dr Aloysius Nuolabong, Sheikh Ahmed Yakubu, the Rev Father John Kuupiel, Alhaji Abdul Rahaman Haruna, the Rev Apostle George Apsera and the Rev Benard Anchebah.

The rest are Kuoro Richard Babini Kanton VI, Venerable Moses Z. Banungwiir, Mr Mohammed Abdulai Sidiki and Mrs Hellen Sunmanbo Bagongluri, Madam Hajaratu limann and Alhaji Alhassen Kunbanje.