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Ghana INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS
As of the mid-1990s, there was no external threat against
Ghana; however, Ghana has experienced periodic tensions with two
West African states, Togo and Liberia, which at the time some
observers believed could lead to armed conflict. The parties
involved in these disputes avoided hostilities by relying on
diplomacy rather than on military force to resolve their problems.
In January 1976, Ghanaian-Togolese relations deteriorated after
Togo urged a readjustment of their common border in Togo's favor.
Ghana rejected this demand, citing the 1956 United Nations (UN)
referendum, which had given western Togoland's population the
choice of staying in Togo or of joining Ghana. Nevertheless, in
March 1976, the Ghanaian government banned the National Liberation
Movement for Western Togoland (NLMWT). Later that month, Ghanaian
security forces arrested ten people near Togo's border and charged
them with subversion for contacting Ghanaian dissidents in Togo.
Although the NLMWT threatened to use force against Ghana unless the
UN intervened in the crisis, it failed to launch a successful
guerrilla war against Ghana.
In September 1982, Ghana closed the border to prevent Ghanaian
dissidents who lived in Togo from crossing into Ghana.
Nevertheless, tensions between the two countries resurfaced after
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings seized power in Ghana in
1983. Rawlings warned the Togolese against allowing Ghanaian
dissidents to use Togo's territory as a base from which to launch
attacks against Ghana. In early 1984, after Ghana had reopened the
border, the Togolese government calmed Accra's fears by threatening
to arrest any Ghanaian exiles who held meetings in Togo.
In 1986 relations with Togo again deteriorated after Ghanaian
security forces captured a group of armed dissidents who had
crossed the border from Togo. Ghana's secretary for foreign affairs
protested the use of neighboring countries as bases for subversive
activities against the Rawlings regime. In September 1986, Lomé
claimed that Togolese dissidents, operating from Ghana, had
attempted a coup against the government of Togo's president,
General Gnassingbe Eyadema. As a result, Togo temporarily closed
the border with Ghana and then deported 233 Ghanaians. In January
1989, relations between the two countries became strained again
when Togo expelled 120 Ghanaians. After Togo reopened its land,
air, and sea borders with Ghana in October 1990, relations between
the two countries gradually improved.
On January 30, 1993, clashes that pitted Togolese security
forces loyal to Eyadema against several opposition groups prompted
approximately 55,000 refugees to flee to Ghana. Accra, which sided
with Eyadema's opponents, responded by placing the Ghanaian armed
forces on full alert, ostensibly to aid the refugees. Rawlings
claimed that because of this trouble, he was considering a recall
of all Ghanaian troops serving on missions abroad for the UN and in
Liberia. After attackers stormed Eyadema's home in Lomé on March
25, 1993, the Togolese government closed its with Ghana and accused
the Rawlings regime of providing a safe haven for the raiders.
In early 1994, the two countries almost went to war following
yet another incident. According to Togolese authorities, more than
100 armed Togolese crossed the border from Ghana in early January
to assassinate Eyadema and to take control of the government. Togo
immediately closed its border with Ghana, and each nation then
accused the other's armed forces of launching cross-border raids.
Although tensions eased later in the year, the Ghanaian minister of
foreign affairs warned of further incidents unless Eyadema
introduced basic democratic reforms.
Ghanaian-Liberian relations suffered a setback in September
1989 over rumors that Monrovia planned a forceful repatriation of
resident Ghanaians following the return of more than 400 Liberians
from Ghana. Although Accra denied that it had deported the
Liberians, Monrovia retaliated by expelling 350 Ghanaians. A more
serious problem occurred in 1990, when a rebel force known as the
National Patriotic Front of Liberia reportedly seized about 2,000
Ghanaians living in Liberia. Many Ghanaians also resented the
presence of approximately 6,000 Liberian refugees who had settled
in a camp at Bruburam near Accra; they argued that Ghanaian
security forces should halt the influx of refugees by detaining
them at the border, by force if necessary.
Despite these difficulties, beginning in mid-1990 the Ghanaian
government deployed three battalions of troops to Liberia as part
of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group
(ECOMOG) peace-keeping force. These troops served eight-month
tours. In late 1994, about 1,000 Ghanaian troops were still serving
in Liberia despite the government's growing impatience with the
mission and the lack of progress toward a settlement of the
conflict.
The ECOMG operation was but one in a long list of international
peacekeeping missions in which Ghana has participated. As early as
1978, Ghana contributed soldiers to the UN Interim Force in
Lebanon; nearly 800 were still on duty there in mid-1994. Other UN
missions in which Ghana has participated include the Iraq-Kuwait
Observation Mission (1991-94); Cambodia, where more than 1,000
Ghanaians served as security personnel during UN-supervised
elections in 1992-93; Somalia (1994); and Rwanda, where nearly 850
Ghanaians troops were part of a 2,500-member peacekeeping force in
1994. Assignments with ECOMOG and other international peacekeeping
operations were avidly sought after because they presented
opportunities for self-enrichment, such as black-market dealings,
otherwise unavailable to the average soldier. So lucrative were UN
assignments that there were reports of bribery for selecting for
such forces.
Data as of November 1994
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