The jihadists’ murder of Ghanaian traders in Burkina Faso presents us with a security conundrum requiring tactful diplomatic manoeuvre.
By the action, the unrelenting jihadists have sent us a subtle message about their intention to draw Ghana into the security quagmire in the Sahel. This is not a development we should allow to germinate let alone grow.
With an already restive Bawku in the neighbourhood of Burkina Faso, what a fertile ground for the jihadists to ply their sadist occupation should we be drawn into the axis of the raging fire. This reality calls for a recalibration of our relationship with the leadership of the junta in Ouagadougou.
The jihadist group up there, one of many operating in the Sahel, do not appear to be happy about our President’s seeming overture to the coup leader in that country.
With Russia holding sway in that country and President Mahama’s inclination to the Burkinabe strongman evident, we are incurring the wrath of the jihadists.
President John Mahama invited the coup leader for his inauguration, invitation which he graced with a scary spectacle; a pistol stuck in its holster and in military fatigue.
The invitation dignified the military adventurism which have taken root in the Sahel and incensed the jihadist leadership who seek the elimination of the Burkinabe military strongman.
Our unwritten policy of treating coup makers with kids’ gloves do not inure to the interests of the now dismembered ECOWAS struggling to keep its head above water.
The appointment of Col Gbevlo Lartey as a special coordinator or so for the coup-infested Sahel should be suggestive of a subtle support for the military adventurism which has taken root in those parts of the sub-region.
If we have for a long time steered away from the unsavoury developments in those countries, especially Burkina Faso, President Mahama’s overtures have altered this.
The jihadists are not daft, they observe the diplomatic developments in the sub-region and would not spare a moment to react when their interests are threatened.
Their gender killing – sparing the women and killing the men – is adequate message to us to be wary of the incendiary loopholes.
The murder of our poor compatriots who did what they always do; travelling to Burkina Faso to buy tomatoes, is regrettable. To trace the cause to a diplomatic faux pas is even more heartbreaking.
It will be in our interest to reset our diplomatic engagement with Burkina Faso in a manner which does not present us as aligning with any of the actors in this restive part of the sub-region.
We demand compensation from the Burkinabe authorities as was done by their Gambian counterparts when our compatriots were killed in that country.