THE Ghanaian authorities have denied reports stating that the UK was to deploy 300 special forces units to the country.
A statement by the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said the government ‘has no interactions with the UK Government aimed at deploying UK soldiers to Ghana for purposes of operations as described in the story.’
The story, originally published by British newspaper The Telegraph and carried by various Ghanaian news portals, and on social media, stated that the British government had taken a decision to send 300 special forces units to Ghana to support the Accra Initiative, a cooperative and collaborative security mechanism launched in 2017 by West African leaders.
The Initiative aims to prevent a spill over of terrorism from the Sahel and to address transnational organised crime within the common border areas of member states. The initiative is to further exchange intelligence, build capacity and undertake military action against terrorist forces in the Sahel that threaten coastal west Africa. The Accra Initiative is an African-led, African-executed initiative which would depend solely on the armed forces of its member states.
The statement stressed that the presence of the UK Armed Forces Minister in Accra was to participate in the Accra Initiative Conference on November 21-22.
‘The Government of Ghana wishes to state that the information regarding British special forces is false. Neither Ghana nor any other member of the Accra Initiative has discussed with any partner, any such request nor contemplated the involvement of foreign forces in any of their activities,’ the statement added.
It urged all ‘patriotic Africans, including Ghanaian patriots, to not fall into the trap of disinformation, misinformation, and fake news that are intended to divide our societies and undermine our unity of purpose.’
