Ghana government memo warns of possible militant attack
ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana and Togo are the next targets for
Islamist militants following high-profile attacks this year in Burkina Faso and
Ivory Coast, according to a memo from Ghana's Immigration Service.
The memo calls for better border protection in the latest
sign of a heightened government response to the threat to West Africa by
militants based in northern Mali who have stepped up a campaign of violence in
the last year.
It says the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has
evidence from neighbouring Ivory Coast from the interrogation of a man
suspected of orchestrating an attack on March 13 in which 18 people were
killed. [nL5N16M30G]
"Intelligence gathered by the ... NSCS indicates a
possible terrorist attack on the country is real. ... The choice of Ghana
according to the report is to take away the perception that only Francophone
countries are the target," said the memo, dated April 9 and published by
Ghanaian media.
It ordered immigration agents on the northern border with
Burkina Faso to be extra vigilant and said patrols should be stepped up along
informal routes between the two countries.
Ghana is one of Africa's most stable and peaceful
democracies and has not suffered an attack by Islamist militants. Togo is the
country's eastern neighbour.
President John Mahama spoke about the memo in an interview
on state radio's Sunrise FM on Thursday. He asked for public vigilance and said
Ghana was also at risk from home grown militants, while noting that countries
in the region share intelligence on militant threats.
"We must deal with this without creating panic amongst
our people," he said, adding that the memo should not have detailed the
intelligence on which its calls for greater vigilance were based.
Government spokesmen in the presidency and at the
immigration ministry did not return calls requesting comment.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility
for attacks on a hotel in the capital of Mali last November, a restaurant and
hotel in Burkina Faso's capital in January and the Ivory Coast attack. In all,
more than 65 people have died, many of them foreigners.
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