Ghana: Secessionist group blocks entries to disputed region, attacks cops
A secessionist group in Ghana called “Homeland Study Group Foundation” on Friday blocked major entries into the Volta region.
Members of the group according to local media mounted roadblocks on some roads preventing motorists from entering their communities.
Motorists travelling to areas like Tefle, Tsopoli and Juapong were left stranded amid the chaos.
Members of the group were said to be wielding guns and sticks and chanting war songs during the blockade.
They are also reported to have attacked two police posts in the region – Aveyime and Mepe Police Stations in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region.
Naked police officers
During that attack the members reportedly stripped officers naked, broke into their armoury and seized their guns.
An eyewitness quoted by local news outlet Joy FM said “They naked the police officers on duty, took their weapons, and locked them in the cells before breaking into the armoury.”
Police and soldiers have now been deployed to the region to restore order as Ghanaian officials struggle to stop the activities of this separatist group that has gained prominent in recent years.
The group has been agitating for years about unfair treatment in Ghana. Its members reside in Ghana’s Volta region previously the British Togoland.
Concerns of the group
Aggrieved residents of this territory claim the processes that led to their merger with the then Gold Coast now Ghana were flawed.
They also claim that the Volta region lacked needed development hence the need to be an independent country on its own.
Leaders of the group declared independence for the territory on November 16, 2019 calling it the “Western Togoland”.
Some of its members have been arrested and are facing prosecution in the capital, Accra.
Ghana’s Volta region previously known as the British Togoland is a historical landscape.
In 1922, British Togoland, now Ghana, was formally placed under British rule while French Togoland, now Togo was placed under French rule.
There has been no major dispute to this arrangement until now when the Homeland Study Group Foundation group called for a split.
According to Africa Feeds investigations in Ghana, the agitations have persisted for many years but dominated media discussions from 2016.
Source: africafeeds.com
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