The Commander Rear of Second Infantry Battalion (2BN) under the Southern Command of the Ghana Army, Maj. Martin Dey has hinted that the Western and Western North regions have become a target for terrorist attacks.

Explaining to journalists during a press briefing he said, the economic activities carried out in both regions have exposed them to such attacks.

He said that in June an attack occurred in Cote d’Ivoire, hence, the need for Ghana to protect both regions and the country at large.

The threat, he said, mainly comes from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQ-M) and its associated groups which are fixated on their intent of demonstrating capability and increasing influence within the West African States.

“AQ-M mainly operates in the Sahel Region which includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, but the threat may extend to other neighbouring countries in the region. This is according to an assessed intelligence report with Cote d’Ivoire recording the second terrorist attack against its sovereignty on June 11, 2020; and in Ghana, we are not an exception,”

“We at the Second Infantry Battalion (2Bn) have [the] military operational responsibility of Ghana’s Western territories comprising Western and Western North Regions to ward off external threats like terrorism,” he added.

In view of that, Major Dey says the Second Infantry Battalion (2Bn) has commenced preparatory training in internal security tactics, techniques and procedures of crowd management, control and dispersal.

The training is to largely prepare troops for election security and public safety amidst the threats of terrorism in the sub-region.

The preparations involve a 3-day counter-terrorism and multi-agency interoperability training exercise dubbed ‘Exercise Western Shield 2020’.

"It is aimed at allowing forces, units or systems to operate together. The exercise is to ensure that members of the general public are made aware of the intended exercise in order not to create any panic.``

The unit prior to the ground launch of the exercise slated for October 6 to 9, 2020, will educate the public in the Western and Western North regions to be aware of the exercise which is standard in their core training.

The training, according to Major Dey, “is important, as it fosters cooperation required among stakeholders of security to share common guidelines and procedures in election security management.”

The outlined training would involve drills in Internal Security (IS) Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTTP, comprising Election Security Joint Operation Centre (ES-JOC) procedures and troops’ internal security operational responsiveness.

“Other areas to be covered include the defence of key strategic installations, internal security operations legal requirements among others. It involves movement of troops and the use of blank ammunition with few explosives in controlled areas.”