The Director of Policy at the Ministry of National Security, Dr Osei Bonsu Dickson has said that the true objective of terrorism is to access the sea.
He said the terrorists need access to the sea for transport.
This, according to him, should be a concern for the coastal states.
“The true objective of terrorism is to access the sea… I saw you describe issues about drugs, arms trafficking, transnational criminality and all those kinds of things feed into money laundering activities that support terrorism.
“So the sea and those who line the sea are definitely within the pathway of actors and that is why maritime terrorism suddenly becomes an important mix.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ The Probe on Sunday, he said the threat of terrorism in the maritime space “is as real as daylight.”
According to him, the maritime has had threat variables from different quarters.
“The nature of terrorism in particular has often times been a land-based activity but indeed also, we do have sea-based or maritime terrorism. If you look for example at the Sahel region, it is not lost on you that you see countries like Niger, Burkina Faso and Libya and so when you go up north, countries such as Algeria have experienced a lot of terrorism. But what we are beginning to see which then funnels into problems is because the threat is veering downward,” he explained.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has tasked maritime security chiefs and other stakeholders to stop the threats and take action to deal with terrorist groups moving from the Sahel to the Gulf of Guinea.
According to him, the terrorists use complex technological procedures to execute their plans and to be able to be a step ahead of them, he urged the maritime security chiefs to also implement more innovative and sophisticated technologies that will hinder these terrorists from intruding.
“Technology has become a vital tool in our quest to sustain and secure our maritime domain.”
“The critical challenge is that perpetrators of maritime crimes use sophisticated forms of technology which require a more innovative technology that gives a comparative advantage.”
“Maritime security stakeholders must take charge of this domain in order to deny access to terrorists dripping southwards from the Sahel region towards the Gulf of Guinea,” the President said.
Speaking at the 2023 International Maritime Defence and Exhibition Conference, he said Ghana has not recorded any issue of piracy or armed robbery in its maritime domain since 2022.
He says more investments are being made to boost the capacity of the Ghana Navy.
“The fact remains, with the concerted effort of the Ghana Navy and other key maritime stakeholders, Ghana has not recorded any piracy or armed robbery since 2022.”
