Burkina Faso use it as hide-out and smuggling route

A person from Ghana has advised the RAYNAE how he was seized at gunpoint by jihadists in neighbouring Burkina Faso, earlier than being taken to their huge desert camp the place he gained a uncommon perception into their lives – from the kids he believed had been educated as suicide bombers, to the tunnels they’d dug to defend themselves and their armoured tanks from air strikes.

In his first media interview since his 2019 ordeal, the person – whom we’re calling James to guard his id – stated his first day on the camp was terrifying as an enormous variety of Islamist fighters returned from an operation, firing pictures within the air.

“I assumed that was the top. I used to be simply sweating,” James stated, including that he additionally ended up wetting his pants when some fighters hit him with their weapons – and laughed.

James, who’s in his 30s and follows a conventional African faith, stated the insurgents later tried to recruit him, attractive him with the attract of energy by saying he may at some point grow to be the commander of a battalion.

“The commander introduced out a sack. It contained completely different weapons, AK-47, M16, and G3 [rifles]. So he requested me which ones I may function, and I stated I had by no means operated one earlier than. He stated: ‘Now we have larger weapons, so if I offer you a battalion to deal with, no-one can hurt you’,” James added.

He stated he was fortunate to be launched about two weeks later after he begged for his freedom, claiming that he had a sick baby at house and promising the camp commander that he would grow to be his recruiting-sergeant in Ghana – a promise he says he by no means stored.

Ghana’s Nationwide Fee on Civic Training, a authorities physique which is spearheading a public marketing campaign to forestall younger folks from becoming a member of the jihadists, advised the RAYNAE that it was conscious of James’ expertise.

“I met him in an try and sensitise tertiary-level college students,” stated Mawuli Agbenu, the fee’s regional director within the capital, Accra.

“We will certainly have a method of partaking with him in order that he might be an envoy or an influencer inside his group,” Mr Agbenu added.

Lengthy a secure democracy, Ghana has to date been spared the violence that has seen the insurgency unfold, inflicting havoc in Burkina Faso and its West African neighbours.

The insurgents who kidnapped James belonged to Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), or The Assist Group for Islam and Muslims. An affiliate of al-Qaeda, it was formally launched in 2017 as an umbrella physique for varied jihadist teams within the area.

In Burkina Faso, they’re strongest within the north, the place they management giant areas, however they’ve additionally expanded to the south, alongside the porous 550km-long (340 mile) border with Ghana.

Greater than 15,000 folks from Burkina Faso have fled into northern Ghana to flee the battle, assist companies say.

Other than Burkina Faso, the jihadists have additionally gained territory in Niger and Mali, and have carried out assaults in Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo – all former French colonies – elevating fears that the insurgency was spreading south in the direction of the coast.

In April, a senior UN official stated that “the epicentre of terrorism has shifted from the Center East and North Africa into sub-Saharan Africa, concentrated largely within the Sahel area [which includes Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger]”.

Jihadists linked to each al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group function within the area.

A Ghanaian safety officer stationed alongside the border with Burkina Faso advised the RAYNAE that the jihadists typically crossed over to regroup when below strain from Burkina Faso’s navy – and so they additionally used the nation to smuggle weapons, meals and gas.

“It’s not secure for Ghana. They conceal in cities like Pusiga. Residents of border communities are frightened as a result of there’s no tight safety,” he added.

In a report launched in July, the Netherlands Institute of Worldwide Relations think-tank stated the “absence of actual assaults on Ghanaian soil appears to end result from JNIM’s calculus of not disturbing provide strains and locations of relaxation in addition to not frightening a comparatively robust military”.

“Examples of people who find themselves spared by JNIM by displaying their Ghanaian id playing cards suits this studying,” it added.

Most Ghanaians are Christians, however the inhabitants close to the border with Burkina Faso is especially Muslim – and elements of the area have additionally been riven with ethnic tensions, elevating fears that the jihadists may exploit them to their benefit.

The think-tank stated that JNIM had tried in a “very small quantity” of cases to recruit or incite Ghana’s small, largely Muslim Fulani group to hold out assaults.

JNIM claimed that they had been marginalised, however its recruitment efforts had “minimal success” because the Fulani had been “conscious of the chaos that has enveloped the Sahel as a result of familial networks” and didn’t need it to happen in Ghana, the think-tank added.

A Fulani Muslim preacher in Burkina Faso, Amadou Koufa, is the co-founder of JNIM and is its second-in-command. He recruits most of his fighters from the Fulani group in Burkina Faso.

The navy has been accused by rights teams of retaliating by stigmatising Fulanis, and finishing up indiscriminate assaults on their villages in Burkina Faso.

In 2022, a France-based NGO, Promediation, stated its analysis confirmed that the jihadists had recruited between 200 and 300 younger Ghanaians.

Though some had been working in insurgency-hit international locations like Burkina Faso, others had been despatched again to their villages in northern Ghana to evangelise their “radical religion”, it added.

This might ultimately result in the jihadists gaining “a sustainable foothold in distant and peripheral areas within the north”, the NGO stated.

Since 2022, Ghana has been on the forefront of efforts to create a brand new Western-backed, 10,000-strong regional pressure to fight the Islamist insurgency.

Tamale – the most important metropolis in northern Ghana – is meant to be the pressure’s headquarters.

Nevertheless, the headquarters has not but opened, and the destiny of the initiative is unclear after the area break up between pro-Western and pro-Russian states.

Burkina Faso – together with Mali and Niger – have pivoted in the direction of Russia. The three international locations have shaped their very own alliance to struggle the insurgents, and have additionally relied on assist from Russian mercenaries.

Ghana and different regional states have remained allied with the West.

Ghana’s navy has established bases within the north, however newly put in border surveillance tools was not but working, the safety officer, who spoke on situation of anonymity, advised the RAYNAE.

Nevertheless, extra troops have been despatched since JNIM carried out two assaults, late final month and earlier this month, on the Burkina Faso aspect of the border, the officer added.

Ghana’s authorities didn’t reply to a RAYNAE request for remark.

Nevertheless, its ambassador to Burkina Faso, Boniface Gambila Adagbila, advised the RAYNAE the 2 international locations had been serving to one another to struggle the insurgents, warning that if Burkina Faso fails “Ghana could prone to be the following place”.

Ghana’s Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC) social gathering – which can type the following authorities after profitable elections on 7 December – promised in its marketing campaign manifesto to “improve” border safety with “worldwide companions”, in addition to enhance the nation’s intelligence capabilities.

In August 2023, the European Union introduced that as a part of a 20m euro ($21.6m; £16.6m) assist bundle it might provide Ghana with about 100 armoured autos, in addition to surveillance tools equivalent to drones.

Many civilians and refugees cross the Ghana-Burkina Faso border by way of footpaths and again roads to work, commerce or go to family regardless of the safety danger – and James stated he was one in all them. He was travelling all the way in which to Senegal on his motorcycle when he was taken captive.

After using for almost a day, he stated he encountered the insurgents in north-western Burkina Faso, as he was nearing the border with Mali.

A handful of jihadists, additionally on motorbikes, stopped him and took him to their camp the place he was interrogated till their commander was satisfied that he was not a spy, James stated.

He added that his blindfold – the trademark black jihadist flag – was then eliminated.

James stated he discovered about 500 insurgents – largely younger males, together with one who recognized himself as a health care provider – residing within the camp.

Positioned in desert-like terrain, it was made up of thatch-roofed huts, with small electricity-generating photo voltaic panels, he stated.

He added that the camp was divided into three sections – for commanders and their households, lower-ranking jihadists and captured villagers and troopers.

James stated he was detained within the latter part, however bought “nearer” to the jihadists within the second week as he more and more acted as if he had grow to be a sympathiser of their trigger.

They sat round in teams of 5 or 10, and listened to the songs of Salif Keïta, the Malian musician often called the Golden Voice of Africa, James stated.

Different jihadist teams have banned music, saying it’s un-Islamic.

James stated that whereas the environment on the camp was usually relaxed, teams of jihadists often went to struggle, firing celebratory pictures after they returned, claiming to have achieved battlefield success.

James stated he realised that this was the gunfire he had heard on the primary day, and bought used to it.

He added that the insurgents parked their tanks and pick-up vehicles in two inter-connected tunnels to make sure they weren’t destroyed if there was an air strike, whereas only some autos remained outdoors “on stand-by, for an emergency”.

He stated the jihadists additionally revealed their darkest sides – telling him they captured girls throughout raids on villages and offered them to one another.

“They commerce the ladies they’ve captured. Others promote wives that they’re fed up with. Those that resist are gang-raped into submission by two or three fighters,” James added, although he didn’t see them do that.

James stated the ladies on the camp included the wives of jihadists who carried out home chores like cooking and cleansing, whereas those that had been captured had been both sex-slaves or had been pressured to grow to be fighters.

He defined that he noticed absolutely veiled girls, with AK-47 rifles hidden below their garments, depart the camp to raid villages for livestock to feed folks on the camp – or to promote at markets in close by cities.

James stated he additionally noticed dozens of kids, together with these of jihadists, being educated in using weapons and explosives.

“You may see a small child holding a gun and telling you that if he goes to fulfill some folks, that is how he’s going to kill them,” James added.

He stated he twice noticed 4 kids being taken to a different location, earlier than returning to the camp with suicide vests.

They wore lengthy, free outfits over them, and left the camp with begging bowls, James stated.

Jihadists advised him that after they anticipate a troublesome battle in a city or navy camp, they ship kids disguised as beggars who then blow themselves up, so the fighters can enter amid the chaos, James stated.

He added that three jihadists had advised him that they “sacrifice their kids as suicide bombers and so they receives a commission after each mission”, although they didn’t disclose the quantity.

He stated the jihadists tried to indoctrinate him, preaching that “something Western is evil” and displaying him propaganda movies each evening, together with one of many US invasion of Iraq and the killing of Palestinians within the present battle with Israel.

Based on James, because the insurgency was being waged in French-speaking international locations, all of the jihadists had been Francophone, however one spoke English with a Ghanaian accent, and all the time stored his face coated in order that he couldn’t see him.

In an indication that the jihadists had been additionally influenced by pan-Africanism, James stated a few of them invoked the names of revolutionaries like Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara and Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and advised him that folks ought to “stand up” towards “unhealthy leaders” and free themselves from “bondage”.

James stated the jihadists additionally expressed the view that if Sankara and Nkrumah had “lived lengthy”, then “the entire of Africa would have been a greater place – no one would have travelled from Africa to the West. Individuals would have been travelling from the West to Africa”.

James, unemployed on the time, stated their rhetoric was highly effective, and solely “power of coronary heart” prevented him from becoming a member of their ranks.

On how precisely he was captured, James stated that two Muslim buddies had been travelling with him on the time, promising to introduce him to a Muslim religious chief in Senegal who may pray for him and enhance his fortunes.

All three of them had been intercepted by the jihadists as they had been coming to the top of the primary leg of their journey, he stated.

James added one in all his buddies was shot lifeless as he tried to flee, whereas his different buddy was taken with him to the camp.

James stated the commander didn’t launch his buddy, making him worry that he had been pressured to affix the jihadists – or was lifeless.

“The commander advised me that: ‘I’ll allow you to go should you guarantee me you’re going to get me extra fighters’,” James stated.

He added that earlier than driving him to a bus rank and giving him the fare for the journey again house, the insurgents gave him a contact quantity to be in contact, however, James stated, he by no means did and altered his quantity.

Based on James, the jihadists additionally gave him charms, which supposedly had supernatural powers.

Once more, many different jihadists reject using amulets, believing them to be opposite to the teachings of Islam.

James confirmed the RAYNAE the amulets, which had been manufactured from fowl feathers, animal skins and herbs, coated in leather-based and fabric.

They included one which the jihadists falsely advised him provided safety from bullets.

James stated he by no means bought the impression that the insurgents wished to destabilise Ghana, seeing it because the “most secure place” to cover when below strain from Burkina Faso’s navy.

Their focus was on waging an insurgency in international locations the place France and the US “exists”, believing that these two international locations exploit Africa’s assets, to the detriment of its folks, James stated. That is denied by each international locations.

Ghana-based safety analyst Adib Saani expressed concern concerning the rising insurgency in West Africa, and stated he didn’t see a navy resolution to it.

“We have to transcend the militarised posture. We should tackle the socio-economic and geopolitical deficits which might be creating the surroundings for terrorism to try,” he advised the RAYNAE.

Ghana’s Nationwide Fee for Civic Training has been finishing up a public consciousness marketing campaign dubbed “see one thing, say one thing” to encourage residents within the north to report suspicious exercise.

The marketing campaign has additionally been prolonged to Accra, to teach younger folks concerning the risks of jihadism.

The fee’s Mr Agbanu advised the RAYNAE that the marketing campaign was important as Ghanaians had been weak to recruitment.

“There’s a excessive charge of corruption, unequal improvement throughout the nation, and big youth unemployment,” he stated.

James, who’s now a subsistence farmer, stated that he was simply relieved to be alive because the jihadist commander had advised him that he was making an exception by releasing him as a result of usually it was “both your lifeless physique that may go house or no one will ever hear of you once more”.