Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, Ranking Member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Committee, has called on the government to strengthen and deepen Ghana’s involvement in the Accra Initiative as a way to protect the country from increasing terrorism risks in the West African sub-region. He said recent violent incidents in neighbouring countries should serve as a major alert to Ghana’s security authorities.
Jinapor made the appeal during an interview on Joy FM where he described the terrorist attack in northern Burkina Faso that resulted in the deaths of Ghanaian traders as a stark warning for national security planners. He said the attack shows that the evolving threat in parts of West Africa could spill over into Ghana if proactive measures are not put in place.
The Accra Initiative is a multinational security cooperation framework involving Ghana and several other West African states aimed at countering violent extremism and preventing the spread of terrorism from the Sahel into coastal countries. Its activities include intelligence sharing, joint border operations, and security training, but experts have said the initiative needs deeper operational focus and enhanced resources to be more effective against the growing threat.
Jinapor urged the government to go beyond current efforts and ensure that the Accra Initiative becomes more robust and better funded. His argument centres on the fact that Ghana cannot assume it is immune from the region’s security challenges, especially as extremist violence has grown more frequent in countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
He called for improved border security, advanced intelligence gathering, and stronger cooperation with regional partners to prevent any extremist “spill over” into Ghana. Jinapor also encouraged policy makers to invest in systems that will improve early warning capabilities and strengthen preventive approaches rather than reactive responses alone.
The threat of terrorism in the Sahel has prompted several West African governments to upgrade their collective security frameworks, of which Ghana is a part, and discussions about further collaboration are underway at both national and regional levels.
