Call for prosecution of Fulani herdsmen

Accra, Jan. 25, GNA - The Ministry of Defence has recommended that Fulani herdsmen with firearms should be prosecuted and given maximum sentences. "Similarly, those caught committing crimes such as rape and other brutalities should face the full rigours of the law," Deputy Defence Minister, Mr Willaim Ofori Boafo, said in Parliament on Friday. He said the alien herdsmen have a reputation of being extremely hostile and violent and besides terrorising locals, sometimes exchanged fire with police and military personnel. The Minister was responding to a question on the role of the military in the Operation Cowleg exercise, which was launched in 1999, to curb the activities of alien Fulani herdsmen whose cattle were indiscriminately destroying crops and causing environmental degradation in some areas.

"At the height of the operation in the year 2000, about 32,568 cattle exited the country through the La Cote d'Ivoire border, 2,710 and 1,600 through the borders of Burkina Faso and Togo respectively," Mr Ofori Boafo said. He said despite all these efforts, all the cattle could not be driven out and those flushed out came back into the country. He told the House that the herdsmen had a reputation for being hostile to their Ghanaian hosts and were fully armed with lethal weapons to intimidate locals, making it a national security issue. "Mr Speaker, against this background, the military involvement in the Operation Cowleg is focused on assisting the civil authorities to combat the hostile and illegal activities of alien herdsmen." The Minister said it was being proposed that efforts be made to create grazing areas for the Fulani cattle in the various districts at a fee. He said an inter-sectoral approach involving various ministries, including the National Security and Food and Agriculture was needed to tackle the situation.