Ayariga appeals to Foreign Affairs Ministry to help locate 7 ‘missing’ Ghanaians in Burkina Faso

The Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to activate diplomatic channels with the military authorities in Burkina Faso to locate and return seven residents of the Bador and Tampizua communities in the Bawku Municipality.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Ayariga said that the seven men, who are believed to have been arrested by the Burkinabe military, had crossed into the Bittu District of Burkina Faso to claim their cattle after they had been driven there.

This followed an alleged attack on nomadic herdsmen grazing the cattle of the missing men.

The seven men are Abdulai Bagre, Mumuni Seidu, Issaka Nyikabo, Abu Kadir Salifu, Jebrilu Braimah, Bande Mamudu, and Bande Shaibu.

Ayariga said that he had already asked senior Ghanaian military personnel to investigate the matter, but all efforts had been unsuccessful.

He also said that he had contacted former Burkina Faso members of the ECOWAS Parliament, but they had been unable to provide any positive results.

“I hereby formally write to seek your assistance to locate and secure the release and return to Ghana of seven residents of the communities of Bador and Tampizua in Bawku Municipality who are believed to have been arrested by the military authorities in Burkina Faso, and despite every effort, we have been unable to locate them and secure their return to Ghana,” Ayariga wrote in the statement.