Violent extremism: Paga youth pledge to undertake community surveillance

Various youth groups at Paga in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region have pledged to undertake community surveillance within the district to check the activities of violent extremists.

“As youth groups, we will monitor the activities of individuals or groups such as their communication, tracking of movements, and other forms of data collection,” they said, in a communique jointly signed by Kassim Shahid, Cyprian Mensah, Nuzrat Nurudeen, and Buraje Kansolo, leaders of the four groups in the district.

The youth pledged an engagement with them on how to prevent and contain violent extremism in Ghana, organized at the instance of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) at Paga with funding from the European Union (EU).

They further pledged to educate community members across the district on the need for peace and to prevent counter-violent extremism and resolved to form watchdog committees to help report strange activities to the appropriate authorities for redress.

“We will sensitize our community members to call the toll-free numbers, 999 and 991 when there is an attack or report to the immediate security agency or community leaders,” they added.

The youth noted that awareness creation at worship centres on the need to be vigilant was critical and indicated their willingness to take up such initiative to alleviate the danger, change livelihood, and ensure a safe environment with a positive effect on national security.

Mr. Robert Dampare, the Kassena-Nankana West District Director of the NCCE, advised the youth in the area to be security cautious as the district shared border with Burkina Faso, with possible invasion of extremist groups. He said the programme was intended to impact the behavior of the youth, stressing that the proximity of the district to the border exposed them to risks, “In case of any eventuality, we are most at risk, before the Kassena-Nankana Municipality or any other place.”

Mr Gerard Ataogye, the Chief Executive for the Kassena-Nankana West District, said radicalization had become rampant among the youth, and cautioned that “If care is not taken, we are sitting on a time bomb, and for that matter, there is the need for us to be cautioned well.”

He commended the NCCE and its funding partner, the EU, for the initiative to engage the youth on the need to prevent violent extremism in Ghana and said the government would continue to initiate youth-friendly programmes to engage them so that violent extremists groups could not take advantage of their idleness to recruit them.

He was confident that when the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) project, a multi-country US$450 million credit facility from the World Bank, was implemented, the youth component in the project would ensure young people would be engaged in meaningful activities.

Assistant Superintendent of Immigration (ASI) Robert Ubindam, the Head of Operations, and Intelligence of the Ghana Immigration Service at Paga, reiterated the need for the youth in the area to say no to violent extremism and terrorism, “Do not allow themselves to be recruited and radicalized to join terrorist groups,” he advised.

Source: GNA