President John Mahama has charged the country’s security agencies to be on high alert following the recent wave of terror attacks on the Africa continent.
[contextly_sidebar id=”EZTAx8j9A9QPOxlLLcn7tdAle0CcY6bB”]He said it is imperative for the nation’s security agencies to begin rigorous training by modifying training modules to protect citizens from terrorist attacks.
“We must therefore prepare and train for any such eventuality, caustic situations, bombings, attacks on shopping malls etc. etc. are things that we must prepare for,” he advised.
Speaking at the West African Soldiers Social Activities on Friday, the President, who is also the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), indicated that government will do all it can to equip the country’s security agencies to avert any terror attack.
He said his government will retool and prepare the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to effectively fight terrorists.
A 300-million dollar facility has been secured to procure modern military armaments including, Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), tanks, operational vehicles, helicopters and other aircrafts, to bring the GAF’s UN peacekeeping equipment up to date.
The military will soon take delivery of Z-9 helicopters from China while personnel from the Ghana Air Force have already undergone training in China.
Five Sukarno aircraft from Brazil for training and for assault purposes.
This comes in the wake of increasing terrorist attacks by Islamist Militant group, Boko Haram in north-eastern Nigeria and in neighbouring West African states.
The group since 2009 has killed thousands and misplaced millions of people.
Recently, Boko Haram has begun carrying out cross border attacks on neighbouring Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
This has given rise to serious concerns among West African states which are apprehensive about a possible attack on the respective countries.
According to President Mahama, the world has become a dangerous and an unpredictable place “with all manner of non-state actors achieving the capacity to wage war and wreak violence on various world populations.”
Some of these non-state actors, he said, “are terrorist organizations driven by religious and other bigoted ideologies to wreak unspeakable terror on innocent people; taking advantage of democratic society to attack soft targets including tactics such as suicide bombings.”
He however admitted that these terrorist groups cannot be easily defeated by conventional forces.
This, he said contributed to the African Union’s (AU) endorsement of the setting up of a rapid response force under the proposed African Union standby force.
The personnel for the AU standby force will be selected from six African states including Ghana.
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By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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