Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has urged United Nations Security Council to take actionable measures to prevent domestic inequalities which has led to urban migration and the creation of fertile grounds for conflict.
Dr Bawumia, who spoke on behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday at UN Security Council meeting in New York, USA, said the issue of poverty, which is an important element in urbanization, would need to be addressed comprehensively.
The Vice President, addressing member countries on the theme: “War in cities: Protection of civilians in urban settings,” said national initiatives would need to be supported to provide equal access to economic opportunities, particularly in developing countries.
That, Dr Bawumia said, would help manage the factors that drove migration, unplanned urbanization and the enablers that nurtured the environment for conflict.
Vice President Bawumia also expressed concerns about the threat posed to civilian populations by extremist groups such as Boko Haram and Al Qaeda in the Magreb, whose activities had become a growing threat in the West Africa.
He said such groups took civilians as “scapegoats in their crusades and considered them as cannon fodder.” The roles played by civilians in such wars demonstrate the complex nature of modern warfare.
Dr Bawumia said the world had witnessed “the horrific effects of urban conflicts” in places like Syria, Iraq and Yemen; and much earlier in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire, where the civil wars were fought in cities.
Urban conflicts, according to the Vice President, created opportunities for violent extremist groups to radicalise young people.
Ghana became a non-Permanent member of the UN Security Council in January 2022 for a two-year term.
Ghana is serving on the Security Council alongside two other African countries, Kenya and Gabon. Kenya’s term elapses at the end of 2022 having been elected a year earlier. In November, Ghana will take over the Presidency of the Security Council on which it is serving for a fourth tenure since independence in 1957.
Dr Bawumia is expected travel to Washington, DC on Wednesday to hold discussions with the US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Molly Phee.
They are expected to discuss the security situation in the Sahel, and political instability in West Africa whose regional body, ECOWAS, President Akufo-Addo currently chairs.
Among other concerns, Ghana wants to galvanise support to focus the UN Security’s attention to address the violent extremism in the Sahel and growing piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.