The Executive Director for Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment (RISE) Ghana, Awal Ahmed Kariama, has called on the government to assign psychologists to the Bawku Municipal District in the Upper East region.

This, according to him, will help reduce the distress among the youth, especially students, amid the recent conflict in the area as the region is incapacitated to provide psychological treatment to the traumatised students.

Speaking to Roselyn Felli on Prime Morning on Thursday, concerning the impact of the conflict on children, the director indicated that the safety of children is not guaranteed due to fitful gunshots, thus creating fright in them.

“As a municipality, Bawku does not have the capacity to accommodate and provide the necessary post-traumatic stress and therapy for people who are suffering from the stress that the conflict has brought on them.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t have enough clinical psychologists on the ground so that they can be able to have a school-placed programme so that they can support some of these students…” he said.

Beyond children, he also indicated that teachers and other adults within the municipality are facing similar problems.

The Director also stated that the children’s panic has reached such proportions that they are terrified of a balloon burst.

He also revealed that his office has been advocating for trauma-informed approaches to help affected people communicate, which he said has failed because their system is not fully developed.

The conflict, he also said, has created a ripple effect on education in the municipality as pupils are unable to interact with teachers from different ethnic groups.

Meanwhile, the Upper East regional correspondent for JoyNews, Albert Sore, who has been speaking on the show, also revealed that due to the intermittent gunshots within the area, curfew hours are still in force and some markets have been temporarily closed.

“For those who don’t have relatives outside of Bawku who they can go and stay with or probably relocate and resettle in other places, they have to go out to work and come back to the town at the end of the day. That means that you have to make sure you’re back in the town before curfew, which starts by 8p.m.,” he stated.

Due to the curfew, students who attend school in the Bawku Municipality from other districts are facing difficulties; they may have to relocate to be able to continue.