Ghana: Militants in the Sahel

For years now, an Islamist insurgency in the Sahel region has been claiming thousands of lives and displacing millions of people. There are fears that it’s spreading to one of West Africa’s most stable countries. For Assignment, Ed Butler investigates some new and disturbing indications that fighting on Ghana’s northern border with Burkina Faso has the potential to spread south as well. It’s not just the Islamist insurgency, but homegrown conflicts inside Ghana that have the potential to spread. And we hear accounts of smuggled livestock, fuel and weapons, as well as stories of Ghanaian fighters joining the Islamist uprising in the north.

Producer and presenter: Ed Butler
Studio Manager: James Beard
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy

(Image: Saafiya Karim, a refugee from Burkina Faso now living in Ghana. Credit: Ed Butler/BBC)