Conflicts in Northern Ghana: A Mirror of Answers to Sub-Regional Stability and Security Questions

Abstract

Ethnic conflicts and civil wars continue to plague many African countries especially in the last two decades. There are growing concerns about the impacts of these conflicts on sub-regional and regional stability as well as security, with adverse implications on economic growth, environment and development. The impacts of these conflicts have been severest on the vulnerable groups such as the aged, women and children reversing many development efforts in conflict zones. These conflicts have also resulted in a profound reduction in foreign investor confidence and regional productive labour lending to the intensification of poverty and under-development in regional Africa, which is already marginalized in the global market system. This paper examines the history of communal violence in northern Ghana, its nature, causes, and demographic, economic and environmental consequences in a view that they will provide useful clues to understanding civil wars in Africa.