Some Ghanaians join the battle against the army

Three Ghanaians told the BBC about their involvement in the fighting between the Islamic rebels and the army in the neighboring Burkina Faso, describing the scenes of random violence at times and bloody battles.

One of the men told the BBC: “We are always with the dead. In some battles, I saw 40, 50 or 100 dead.”

The three, all of them in the late thirties or in the early 1940s, said they fought in Burkina Faso several times since 2018. They crossed the boundaries that are easy to penetrate at a distance of 550 km (340 miles) between the two countries, without being discovered by the security forces.

They denied that they were primarily driven by religion or their training by jihadists, saying that they went to fight to defend civil societies that had strong relations from the family and ethnicity.

“His older brother, wife and children were killed by the (Burkinabe) army.

But another person of men has clarified religious enthusiasm, saying: “If you die during the fighting with the jihadists, you are driving your car to Jana (an Islamic word for the committee), on the path of the righteous.”

Challenge if they had participated in civilian attacks, men were divided.

One of them denied doing this, but another admitted that he did.

“Some local residents support the army in our attack, and for this reason we have to kill them too,” he said.

“You know … I am not happy to fight like this. The number of people we kill, and the people killed by the army, it is very bad. But this battle entered our blood.”

The three spoke on the condition that his identity is not disclosed.

BBC was unable to confirm their claims, but they showed us pictures of weapons, describing the site of modern conflicts and the jihadist leadership in Burkina Faso.

The BBC was put in contact with men through communications in the livestock markets in northern Ghana, where jihadist groups are the fighters.

In 2022, a non -governmental organization based in France, its research, said its research showed that the jihadists recruited between 200 and 300 Ghanaian men.

And the Netherlands Institute for International RelationsIn a report issued last JulyThe jihadists said, “The minimum success,” a recruitment in Ghana.

However, men offered a different perspective, telling the BBC, about the indispensable allegations, that people of “all parts of Ghana” and from “many” ethnic groups were joining the rebellion in Burkina Faso.

“Some are fighting for jihad. Some do it to work,” one of them said.

The financial incentive comes in the form of the abundant cattle that jihadists steal from the societies that come out of their villages.

“When we attack a society, we take their animals: sometimes 50, sometimes 100,” one of them told BBC a man.

The livestock was claimed to north of Ghana, and sold on the market.

Border trafficking was confirmed to the BBC by livestock dealers.

It is believed that it has become a major income for groups such as the Nusrate UL-Slaam Wa al-MUUSLIMIN (JNIM), a subsidiary of a base that is the most active jihadist group in Burkina Faso. It also works in Niger and Mali.

The United Nations in the West Africa region was described last year as the center of global jihadist violence.

Auxiliary agencies say this During the past decade, about millions of people have been displaced In Burkina Faso and tens of thousands they were killed.

Ninpoa Nasuri is one of the thousands who fled to Ghana to escape violence.

BBC told her that her husband was killed in front of her in 2024 during a raid on his village in eastern Burkina Faso by Jinim fighters.

“They grabbed men, and beat them to death. My husband was a farmer. He had nothing to do with the government militia or the conflict,” she told the BBC.

Other refugees described the similar violence by the Burkinabi army.

“Some of the people who were killing were 80 years old, at the age of 90,” Savia Karim said. “These people cannot carry a rifle, and they could not fight with anyone. They killed them for no reason,” Savia Karim said.

Ghana has yet to touch her not to a large extent due to the rebellion, although some attacks took place in the neighboring Togo and Ivory Coast.

In a recent statement to Ghanaian journalist Mohamed Eliaso Tano, a man called a representative of Jinim said that the group was not interested in launching attacks in Ghana.

“(JNIM) are not allowed to take any action against Ghana. This is a clear and some,” said the man, known as Ansari, in the statement, BBC.

However, the rise in mass violence in one part of the north of Ghana has concerned that the jihadists are trying to exploit the conflict in their favor.

Boko is involved in a long struggle for decades between different ethnic groups to control the local leader. More than 100 people were believed to have been killed in clashes since the fighting was intensified last October.

“The evening in Boko is always (one of) fierce shots and exchanges. People use AK47S, M16s, all types of automatic rifles,” one of the residents told BBC.

JNIM smugglers are accused of selling weapons to both sides.

“We understand that they are providing the weapons they took from the army in Burkina Faso. They do this by relying on trucks that are transported to Niger and the retreat of onions. They hide weapons inside these trucks,” Tanko told the BBC.

He added: “One of the intelligence employees assured me that this is the new way in which they bring firearms. The Ghanaian security is not equipped to be able to discover these upcoming vehicles, which put Ghana in a very critical position.”

Defense Minister of Ghana Edward Amman did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

President John Mahama, who took office in January after winning the presidential elections in December, visited Boko last month in an attempt to enhance peace between the competing groups. However, weapons battles are still reported.

The governing spokesman for the Gen. Gamia Giavi party told the BBC that ending violence in Boko is the “first priority” of the government.

“Violence is actually spreading, and if the care is not taken, it is possible that the rebels from the broader area can benefit from this conflict,” he said.

The three men who spoke to the BBC said they did not rule out the possibility of spreading the rebellion.

“This thing can go anywhere, or to any country. It was not in Togo but now the attacks occur there. If they can go to Togo, they can reach Ghana. This thing is strong, he is strong, one of them said.

But the last of the men took a sarcastic perspective, saying that the rebels in Burkina Faso no longer launching a “Islamic conflict”.

“They kill people and steal his livestock. What happens is not jihad, so I don’t like it,” he said.

You can listen to the Ed Petler report on the BBC World Service service program.