The military brutalities meted out to residents of Garu and Tempane in the Upper East region has been condemned by the region’s branch of the National Peace Council and the Catholic Diocese of Bolgatanga-Navrongo.
The Sunday, October 29, 2023, attack which the National Security says was a reprisal for the treatment given to their operatives who were on a counterterrorism mission left many wounded.
Reports indicate five national security personnel who went on the mission were chased with cutlasses and AK 47 rifles by the townsfolk to a police station, where they were kept till some members of the military came to their rescue.
The military has indicated that their raid in the community was to retrieve the weapons and arrest culprits of the attack on the national security personnel.
But the Upper East Peace Council and the Catholic Diocese of Bolgatanga-Navrongo said the heavy handedness of the military action threatens to undo years of cooperation between residents and security personnel in countering violent extremism in the area.
In a joint statement by the two groups, they said “these recent brutalities in Garu by the military have the grave potential of defeating the much needed collaboration and mutual trust between the security personnel and the citizenry in dealing with the violent extremism that is knocking on our borders.”
The Peace Council and the Catholic Diocese have, thus, through their statement called on the government to probe the matter and bring to book, those responsible for the dastardly act while assisting the injured and insuring the safety of those apprehended.
“Furthermore, we call on the Ministry of National Security and the Ghana Armed Forces to ensure that their approach to restore security and peace has more professional touch and not the use of brutal force, so that in the course of their work the dignity of human person is always respected,” they counseled.
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