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President of Ghana H.E John Dramani Mahama has stated that Ghana and Burkina Faso have engaged in high-level discussions on strengthening security cooperation to combat the growing threat of terrorism in the region.
President Mahama today 10th March, 2025 embarked on a day’s working visit to Burkina Faso, as part of his ‘good neighborliness’ tour to countries in the subregion.
The phase of the tour took him to Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso who have left the ECOWAS grouping and formed their Alliance of Sahel states.
President John Dramani Mahama after a close door meeting with Captain Traoré emphasized the need for collective action, stating that terrorism, which began in Mali and gradually spread to Niger and Burkina Faso, is like a cancer that must be fought together to prevent further escalation.
The discussions according to president Mahama focused on strategies for intelligence sharing, border security, and military collaboration to curb the spread of extremist activities.
“We also discussed security, I mean in Africa we say, when your neighbors house is on fire, you have to help him quench it otherwise, it will spread to your own house”
“This issue of terrorism started with Mali, spread gradually into Niger and now into Burkina Faso, like I said, terrorism is like a cancer, if you don’t fight it together, it will spread throughout the body so how we can collaborate in terms of the fight against terrorism is another issue we discussed.”
President John Dramani Mahama further stated that they discussed about the economic relations in respect of traders where they can improve transit corridor so that traders can have free movement from Ghana through to Burkina Faso without any disturbance.
“By then again we discussed the issue of economic relations, in respect of trade between our people, where we can improve transit corridor so that traders can have free movement from Ghana through to Burkina Faso without any disturbance”
He explained that their meeting also touched on how Ghana can increase the supply of electricity power to Burkina Faso.
He says Burkina Faso has recently bought a storage terminal in Tema and so they are looking at how they can use the pipe line in Bolgatanga which can connect to Burkina Faso so that they can push the diesel and fuel through to them