By Peter Agengre
At Garu in the Upper East Region, residents are worried about the influx of immigrants into their towns and homes. For this reason, the MP of the area, Albert Akuka Alalzuga visited these immigrants in some communities in his constituency to get firsthand information about them. He expressed the need for government to create camps to house these immigrants for the safety of the people in the area.
“It is heart wrenching. It is appalling. In fact, you can see misery written on the faces of these fellow human beings. This group of people was driven away by some group of people suspected to be jihadists. They said they came here because this place is more peaceful. But their situation is very pathetic,” Mr. Albert Akuka recounted.
In the last two months, the Garu District have recorded over two thousand immigrants trouping in from Burkina Faso due to some attacks from unknown people suspected to be jihadists. They are said to have come into Garu through unapproved routes carrying some few belongings and their cattle. The two days visit took the MP to four communities, Denugu, Songo, Kugri and Wandugo where these immigrants have settled.
“If you have over two thousand people coming into a District it is fearful and therefore I want to call on government especially the Ghana Refugee Board to expedite action to ensure that some form of relief and support come to these people,” The MP appealed.
Opinion leaders including assembly members, the District Chief Executive and chiefs of the areas have expressed fear that these immigrants may compromise the peace in the area and want government to show interest in the matter.
An Assembly member of the Kugri-Natinga Electoral Area who doubles as the Presiding Member for the Garu District Assembly, Honorable Edward Ndebugri complained that; “there would be pressure on some social amenities and the economic trees in the area.
He said the few boreholes, CHPS compounds, farmlands and means of transport have received so much pressure from these immigrants in the last two months.
He has requested that NGOs and other internal bodies should come to their aid with some blankets, mats and mosquito nets.”