UPPER EAST MINISTER APPEALS FOR SUPPORT

The Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu, has appealed to United Nations (UN) Agencies working in the interest of refugees in region to support the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) to fulfill its monitoring mandate.

He said the RCC was working hard to ensure the safety and security of residents since the outbreak of violent extremism in Burkina Faso which resulted in mass influx of refugees into the region.

“Things would have been worst if we had not put some security measures in place. Government is supporting to keep REGSEC, which meets almost very fortnight very active,” he added.

Hon. Yakubu said this in a meeting with 13 UN Agencies who briefed the Minister on their findings after they visited the settlement areas of the refugee camps in the region.

The Minister, and Chairman of REGSEC, said the Region had porous borders that created insecurity for the country.

He said the National Security Council in its bit to ensure a secured environment, provided some amount of logistics to the security agencies to help fight any possible potential threats to the country.

He said the aim of Jihadists groups was to have access the coastal area to enable them import things to support their criminal acts.

“We will not allow this, l am therefore appealing to you our development partners to resource the RCC and the REGSEC to monitor and fight these violent extremists to overcome the problem.”

The UN Agencies assured the Minister that his concerns would be included in their final reports for the attention of their various management boards.

They indicated that by next week the items in the area of support including health, education agriculture food, non- food and improved health and nutrition items would start arriving.

Some of the UN Agencies present at meeting and pledged their support included UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA, FAO. The local ones were Ghana Refugees Board (GRB) and National Disaster Management Organisation (MADMO).