Ghana Sends Special Forces To Border As Sahel Violence Spreads
ADF STAFF Alima never again expects to live in her Burkina Faso home. Standing near a refugee settlement in Ghana, she can see her native hamlet over a dry riverbed. Alima said she left with her children last year after gunmen raided their settlement and killed two watchmen. “We are staying here for now,” Alima told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “There is no security over there.” Since January, terrorists in Burkina Faso have attacked civilians and pro-government militias in the Boulgou Province, forcing thousands of people to flee to Ghana, where many settlement camps lack sufficient food, water and shelter. In response, Ghana deployed 1,000 Special Forces troops to its northern border in early April amid worries that violent extremist groups in Burkina Faso are seeking to expand their influence and territory. “They are killing people and the people are running, and I also ran,” an anonymous Burkinabe man told Ghana’s JoyNews. “I came here to save my life and my family.” In rural ...