Ghana is teetering on the edge of a man-made food catastrophe. What is unfolding in the north is not just about age-old tribal rivalries — it is about a nation sleepwalking into famine because leaders have failed to act decisively.
The bloodshed in Bawku, where Mamprusis and Kusasis continue to wage war against each other, has already claimed over 300 lives this year alone. Families have fled in terror, farms have been abandoned, and fertile lands have become battlegrounds. The story is the same in Bole-Bamboi, where Gonjas and rival groups are locked in deadly confrontations that have killed more than 40 people in recent weeks. These conflicts are no longer localised flare-ups; they are metastasising into a national security and food security crisis.
The consequence is clear: farmers are not farming. Instead of harvesting food, they are burying their dead and fleeing with their children. Entire fields of maize, millet, and sorghum — the lifeline of Ghana’s food basket — are being destroyed. When you add the crippling effects of climate change, unpredictable rainfall, and floods, the result is a perfect storm that threatens to choke Ghana’s food supply.
This is why food prices keep climbing beyond the reach of ordinary Ghanaians. It is why hunger is spreading in communities that once fed themselves with dignity. And it is why Ghana, a country blessed with arable land, will soon be at the mercy of imported food — draining scarce foreign reserves and leaving our sovereignty at the mercy of global markets.
We have been here before. In the early 1980s, Ghana suffered a devastating famine during the Rawlings era, when drought, poor governance, and food shortages forced millions into hardship. History taught us then that famine is not caused by nature alone — it is caused by policy failure and leadership paralysis. Today, the warning signs are the same, but we are ignoring them again.
If Ghana’s leaders need more reminders, they need only look across the continent. Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan are grim examples of how ethnic conflict, combined with climate shocks, can turn fertile nations into hunger zones. Once the farms are abandoned and the farmers displaced, recovery takes decades, not years. Ghana risks walking that same dangerous path.
What makes this tragedy even more unforgivable is the silence and inertia from those in charge. Where is the government’s plan to restore peace in the north? Where are the policies to protect farmers caught in the crossfire? Where is the investment in climate-resilient agriculture to shield us from the disasters we all saw coming?
The warning signs are flashing red. If nothing changes, Ghana is not just heading into a food crisis — it is marching towards a famine of our own making. History will not forgive a government that allows hunger to take root because it failed to put out the fires of conflict and failed to prepare for the climate shocks of today.
The time for excuses is over. The government must act with urgency — broker peace, rebuild farming communities, secure food production, and protect the nation’s future. Anything less is a betrayal of the people.
