Security Analyst, Dr Kwesi Anning wants security along the country’s Western borders boosted as the country’s western neighbours, Cote d’Ivoire, struggle to address the recurring mutiny by former rebels in the army.
According to him, security personnel along the border must be quick in detecting any suspicious movements and report to inform the country’s response to the developments there.
“The institutions along the borders must be a little bit more alert, send the report to Accra as quickly as possible and then the decision is taking as to the level of alertness that we need to put our security too, in order to get the job done,” Dr. Aning said.
In January this year, former rebels who had been integrated into the army’s ranks staged a mutiny over their demand for bonuses.
The troops, who are one-time rebels backing Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara and controlled the northern half of the country between 2002 and 2011, were demanding the government pay them 12 million CFA francs (€18,000) per soldier.
According to sources, they received five million francs (€7,500) in January and had been due to receive the rest this month, rebel sources say.
Some disgruntled soldiers resumed their revolt when one of their senior members on his own accord announced that they had given up their financial demands.
The angry soldiers w soldiers who expressed anger at the announcement blocked access roads in Abidjan, Bouake and other Ivorian cities.
An anti-mutiny attack was staged resulting in the injury of some persons.
Dr. Kwesi Aning said the developments in Cote d’Ivoire has major implications on Ghana however, the government must not attribute rising incidents of robbery and the proliferation of illegal small scale arms to the mutiny.
“The guns are in Ghana already, in abundance so I don’t want people to think that if there is the spate of armed robbery in the coming weeks then it is because there are heavy guns in Cote d’Ivoire. Our own study in Ghana last year demonstrated almost 1.2 million unregistered guns in Ghana so I think we need to be careful in disaggregating the kinds of threat that may impact Ghana because of the Ivorian crisis,” he noted in a Citi News interview.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
