This is not Ghana: The alarming rise of Kidnapping and Human Trafficking within our borders

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Interior Minister Hon. Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak and IGP Mr. Christian Tetteh Yohuno

Kidnapping is no longer a distant story that happens “out there.” In October 2025, 18-year-old Senegalese goalkeeper Cheikh Touré was lured to Kumasi by fake “scouts,” abducted for ransom, and killed when his family could not meet a ransom demand. A young life full of promise, ended by a lie. His death is a gut-punch warning: criminal networks are testing Ghana’s defenses and our complacency. Authorities in Senegal and Ghana confirmed the case and opened a cross-border investigation. This is not a rumor; it is a warning [1].

These are not isolated cases; in recent years we have seen court-proven kidnappings including the Canadians’ case where four men were sentenced to jail for kidnapping Canadians in Ghana and demanding a ransom of $800,000 for the women that ended in 10-year sentences [2]. But the men’s prison terms did not dismantle the ecosystem that makes abductions profitable. We can’t keep measuring success in arrests made after families have already lived through terror and fresh arrests tied to abductions and armed robberies, each case says the same thing: the threat is real, organized, and learning fast. Two other recent operations in Ghana showed how trafficking networks weaponize opportunity. The Police busted a Nigerian-led ring, arresting three suspects and rescuing seven victims, with coordination for repatriations through Nigeria’s NAPTIP [3]. In a separate CID raid at Adom Estates (Community 25), five suspects were nabbed and 57 Nigerians freed from a human-trafficking/cybercrime hub [4]. This is not only a Ghana problem and that is exactly the point: criminals are moving fluidly across borders while we debate jurisdiction. In April 2025, a joint Côte d’Ivoire Ghana investigation backed by INTERPOL rescued 33 victims and arrested traffickers running exploitative pyramid-scheme scams.

A newer, quieter conveyor belt is the “opportunity” trap, fake trials, fake jobs, fake visas, fake clubs, fake trainings. Ghana’s EOCO only days ago rescued 26 people from a trafficking ring linked to fraudulent QNET-style offers.In another instance, INTERPOL reported a joint Côte d’Ivoire Ghana operation rescuing 33 victims from a pyramid-scheme network that sequestered and exploited recruits. This isn’t marketing; it’s abduction with paperwork [5].

The data tells us the threat is not episodic. The U.S. State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report documents hundreds of identified victims in Ghana each year, mostly labor trafficking with significant sex-trafficking cases, numbers that likely undercount the real scale because victims are hidden, shamed, or afraid to report. When we dismiss “network marketing” scams as annoying but harmless, we miss the darker reality: some “recruits” are victims [6].

So, we must ask without flinching: have kidnappers infiltrated Ghana? Or have we simply left the doors ajar, reacting after each case, issuing statements, waiting for the next family to beg strangers for help on the internet? A nation that prides itself on peace cannot become a soft launchpad for kidnappers and human traffickers. Economic management matters, yes, but security of the person is the first economy. If families do not feel safe, nothing else compiles.

Leaders, this is your charge: move from case-by-case policing to prevention by design. Stand up a permanent, multi-agency anti-kidnapping task force with clear public reporting; map hotspots; mandate due-diligence registries for recruiters, academies, “talent scouts,” and work-study agencies; require verification numbers of parents can check before a child travels; run quarterly stings on fake-job hubs; and publish outcomes, not promises. Partner with our neighbors because these syndicates already do. Measure success in lives not abducted and Fund prevention like you fund roads, own the fight openly. Reward units for victims prevented, not just suspects arrested. When a recruiter or “academy” fails verification, shut it down, seize assets, and publicize the action. When courts convict, name the offense and sentence in plain language. Silence protects the next predator.

Citizens, we have work too. Talk to yourselves and children plainly about online lures, “instant trials,” and “travel now, pay later” schemes. Verify every offer with the club, school, company, embassy, or ministry, never through the recruiter alone. Meet in public places, bring another adult, and share live locations. If money changes hands up-front “for processing,” walk away. Report suspicious approaches; your tip can save someone you will never meet. Remember: many victims were first pitched a “network business”, “a job/travelling opportunity’’ or “foreign placement.”

Sports bodies, agents, and academies: clean your house. Publish accredited scout lists, hotline numbers, and travel protocols; insist on written invitations on club letterhead confirmed by email from official domains; require chaperones for minors and keep custody of passports during trials. After Cheikh Touré, anything less is negligence with a human cost.

Media and clergy, amplify pre-incident education with the same energy as post-incident outrage. Universities and SHSs, integrate a one-hour “safe opportunities” module each term. Banks and mobile money operators, flag patterns of ransom transfers and fast “on-ramping” of mule accounts; work with police on rapid freezes.

Let’s be clear: Ghana is not helpless, and we are not doomed. But we cannot keep reacting to crimes and calling it security. The playbook against kidnapping is known; verification, transparency, cross-border policing, data, and relentless public awareness. We must run that play now at full speed, not after the next family receives a ransom call.

To every parent, coach, teacher, agent, and friend: be the hard question that stops a soft lie “Who invited you? What club? Which contact? Verified how?” One firm question today can keep a child alive tomorrow.

Cheikh Touré should have come to Ghana to chase a dream, not to meet his end. May these losses move us from sympathy to systems, from statements to safeguards, from “this is not Ghana” to “in Ghana, this will not stand.”

The writer, Jonathan Awewomom, is a GH Research Scientist based in Miami, FLorida-USA and a Contributor to National Discourse.

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