Renowned security and international relations expert, Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, has pointed to political interference as a key driver of the protracted Bawku conflict, cautioning that military deployments alone will not resolve the crisis unless these political undercurrents are tackled head-on.
In an interview with press men on Sunday, July 27, 2025, Dr. Antwi-Danso said the government’s reliance on military and police deployments amounts to a stopgap measure that fails to address the underlying factors fuelling the violence.
“…military presence, police presence in their numbers will not solve the problem,” he stated. “There are several pillars propping up the conflict. It could be history that has not been properly related, and we’re adding on and twisting history.
“It may be the media—the way we handle it. It may be the people themselves or intra-community miscommunication. It could be politics.”
He was unequivocal in identifying political influence as central to the Bawku crisis: “In the Bawku case, politics is one of the greatest beams supporting the conflict,” he said.
Dr. Antwi-Danso warned that unless these “beams” are dismantled, security interventions will achieve little more than temporary calm.
“So until you remove these props one by one for the conflict triangle to fall, you have done nothing. So using the military often is only a stopgap,” he stressed.
His comments come at a time of renewed violence in Bawku, where the government has imposed a strict curfew and ordered the evacuation of students from conflict-prone areas following deadly attacks believed to be linked to the long-running chieftaincy dispute.
Calls are growing for the government to take a more comprehensive approach—one that recognises the political manipulation and historical distortions that continue to fuel tensions. Dr. Antwi-Danso’s remarks have reinforced demands for sustained dialogue, transparency, and depoliticisation of the conflict to break the cycle of violence.
