Curfews won’t fix Bawku conflict – Prof. Aning

Security expert Professor Kwesi Aning has strongly criticised the government’s continued reliance on curfews to address the long-running conflict in Bawku, calling the measure a “lazy” and ineffective strategy that has repeatedly failed to bring lasting peace.

Speaking in an interview on Monday, July 28, Prof. Aning expressed deep frustration over the repeated use of the same security tactics despite their lack of results.

“We’ve dealt with this crisis for years, yet we keep applying the same outdated solutions, it’s baffling that we expect different outcomes from the same failing approach,” he said.

He singled out the imposition of curfews as a prime example of what he described as the state’s reactive and shallow crisis management.

“Curfews are a lazy, stopgap response to a complex emergency, they don’t address the root causes and only provide an illusion of control,” Prof. Aning stated.

Instead, he called for a more strategic, intelligence-driven approach that maps out the various groups involved in the conflict.

“We need a deeper, multi-layered understanding of the actors fueling this violence who they are, their sources of funding, access to weapons, and how their economic and political networks embolden them to defy the authority of the state,” he stressed.

Prof. Aning’s remarks come in the wake of the government’s imposition of a strict 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew on Bawku and Nalerigu, following a new wave of violence that erupted after the assassination of a Kusasi chief in Kumasi.

Authorities have not indicated when the curfew will be lifted.

A statement from the Ministry of the Interior justified the curfew as part of broader efforts to restore calm amid rising tensions. However, critics argue it does little to address the underlying tensions driving the conflict.

Over the weekend, the violence took a disturbing turn. A student at Bawku Senior High School, believed to be of Mossi descent, was reportedly pulled from his dormitory and shot dead by unknown gunmen, allegedly mistaken for a member of a rival chieftaincy faction.

On the same day, two students from Nalerigu Senior High School were also gunned down in what appears to be a retaliatory attack.