The Ranking Member of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, has made a passionate call for an immediate depoliticisation of the conflict and a nationalistic approach to resolving the crisis.

“The death toll is rising. People are living in fear. Children can’t go to school,” he told Joy News’ PM Express on Monday night.

“No essential services are thriving at the moment. Teachers, doctors and nurses are refusing posting to Bawku. Essential services are crippling, and this is really dire for our humanitarian efforts.”

His comments come amid escalating violence that has reportedly resulted in the deaths of both civilians and security personnel.

According to Rev. Fordjour, the conflict has taken on a new and dangerous dimension, with attacks on the very security forces deployed to restore peace.

“We’ve seen a worrying trend. The new dimension of the conflict seems to be between one of the feuding factions and the security services,” he said.

“It seems like some reprisals between the youth on one side and the police, and that is very dangerous. The security is there to ensure the protection of our citizens.

"If this conflict begins to stretch into open clashes between armed youth and security agencies, it’s going to be catastrophic.”

The Minority, he said, is urging calm, restraint, and responsible action by all parties.

“We are first and foremost extending our condolences to the bereaved families and sympathies to those injured in the escalation.

"We are also conveying our sympathies to individuals and organisations who have lost property,” he said. “But more importantly, what we are saying is that Bawku deserves peace.”

Rev. Fordjour stressed that a major obstacle to sustainable peace is the politicisation of the conflict by some political actors.

“One of the first things government has to do is to view this conflict as one whose solution cannot be politicized,” he stated.

“Every politician is urged to depoliticize. If we remove every tendency, undertone, and underpinning of politics from this conflict, what we are left with is a chiefly and traditional matter—something the Otumfuo-led mediation is addressing and will address.”

Rev. Fordjour criticised recent political rhetoric, suggesting that the escalation of the Bawku conflict correlates with the party in power.

“We’ve heard some pronouncements suggesting that when a certain party is in power, Bawku conflicts escalate, and when another is in power, it subsides,” he said. “This is not the time for that. Every politicization must be withdrawn.”

In addition to political restraint, Rev. Fordjour called on government to take urgent action to halt the influx of dangerous weapons into the conflict zone.

“The challenge of sophisticated weaponry in this conflict is extremely troubling. The kind of weapons our brothers and sisters have access to is part of the reason there’s this confidence to confront security agencies,” he said.

“Wherever that source of weaponry is coming from, government must take urgent action.”

He reaffirmed the Minority’s readiness to support the government in any genuine, depoliticised peace efforts.

“We are saying we will support the government. Let this be a nationalistic approach,” he said. “We must act now before more lives are lost.”