Ghanaian security force specialists visit Spain

Northern Ghana is affected by the expansion of terrorist groups and the increase in transnational crime, which is why it is important for the Ghanaian Security Forces to strengthen their knowledge of and response to these groups. The European NORPREVSEC project supports and works with the Ghanaian Security Forces to strengthen resilience and security in the five northern regions of Ghana.

During one week, a delegation with 11 specialists from the Ministry of National Security and police commanders from the five northern regions of Ghana in the areas of Counter Terrorism and Transnational and Organised Crime, visited different units of the National Police with the aim of exchanging experiences and to learn first-hand about their way of working in order to subsequently strengthen and support the relevant departments in their country.

During the visit, the Ghanaian delegation visited the FIIAPP offices and were able to meet the project team in Madrid and the work carried out in the cooperation projects. In addition, they were able to visit the General Commissariat of Judicial Police, the General Commissariat of Information, the UN Counter-Terrorism Office opened in 2023, the National Police Academy in Avila, the Intelligence, Command, Communication and Control Centre of the Madrid Police Headquarters (CIMACC), the Police Intervention Units and the Centre for Intelligence against Organised Crime (CITCO). This allowed them to see how the Spanish National Police is trained and how information is handled in the different police units.

The visit has allowed them to see the operation of various databases that operate at the national level and the various protocols for analysing information with the aim of creating intelligence products in order to be able to then transfer all this knowledge to their police units in Ghana.

The project: NORPREVSEC

So far, the project has trained over 1300 personnel from the various security agencies operating in the northern regions of Ghana.

A single intelligence database for all security agencies has also been expanded in all regions and will culminate in the installation of 125 terminals in Northern Ghana, enabling security personnel to have access to the same information on the cases they are working on, allowing them to be more effective and efficient in the pursuit of terrorist groups and other organised gangs.