Kwabena Adu Koranteng
The word refugees — was once foreign to Ghana’s reality. We heard it only in news bulletins about Somalia, Sudan, or Iraq. Today, that grim word has come home. Ghana now has more than 200,000 internally displaced people, driven from their homes by tribal wars. And the shameful truth is this: it is happening under the watch of a government that has done little more than look away.
A Country Burning While Leaders Trade Blame
From Bawku in the Upper East to the Savannah Region and even to Accra, Ghana is at war with itself. In the Savannah Region, the Gonja–Birifor war alone has claimed more than 400 lives and displaced 200,000 people. Entire villages have been wiped off the map.
Yet what do we hear from government? Hollow condemnations, half-hearted security deployments, and silence from leaders too afraid to hold chiefs, politicians, and warlords accountable.
The Unholy Alliance of Chiefs, Politicians, and Bigots
These conflicts are not accidents — they are engineered. Chiefs fuel disputes to hold land. Politicians stoke tribal hatred to win votes. Vigilante groups, armed and funded by political actors, turn small quarrels into wars.
Everyone knows this, yet the state looks on as though its hands are tied. How many reports from commissions of inquiry are rotting in government archives? How many instigators have been punished?
Pull Quote:
“Ghana’s leaders love to boast about peace abroad, but back home they are too timid — or too complicit — to act.”
A Humanitarian Disaster in the Making
Farmers cannot access their land, worsening food insecurity. Children are dropping out of school. Makeshift refugee camps are breeding grounds for disease and despair. Displaced youth, stripped of dignity, are becoming easy recruits for extremists already destabilizing the Sahel.
Enough is Enough
Tribal violence is a national crisis. A government that cannot protect its citizens from slaughter and displacement has failed in its most basic duty.
The 200,000 atukɔfoɔ living in tents today are living proof of state failure. If urgent action is not taken, that number will double — and Ghana will wake up one day to find itself on the same list as Somalia, Sudan, and Iraq.
Ghana is bleeding. Government must stop sitting on its hands.
Ghana Cannot Pretend Anymore
Ghana is producing its own atukɔfoɔ — not from foreign wars, but from tribal conflicts tearing our nation apart. More than 400 lives lost and 200,000 displaced should be enough to jolt the conscience of any leader.
But instead of bold action, we get silence. Chiefs, politicians, and warlords who incite violence walk free while ordinary Ghanaians pay the price.
“Enough of the silence. Enough of the excuses.”
If government does not act — by disarming militias, prosecuting instigators, and protecting the displaced — then the peace Ghana is famous for will collapse before our eyes.
Peace is not automatic. If we fail to defend it, Ghana will bleed to death.
