Some residents of Ketu South district in the Volta Region are set to demonstrate on Friday, August 27, 2021, to demand the reopening of the Aflao border.
The residents will be protesting under the banner of the Concerned Border Town Residents.
“All we are asking the government to do is to open our borders for our lives to get back to normal,” said Bright Dzili, a spokesperson for the residents planning to protest said.
Ghana’s borders were closed in March 2020 on the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Whilst air borders were reopened in September 2020, land borders have remained closed.
Residents in the Ketu South District are known to engage in cross-border trading activities by crossing into Togo, and as a result, have complained that the border closure is severely affecting their livelihoods.
Mr. Dzili believes the current situation is unsustainable.
“We have also come to understand that even though government means well with the protocols and the closure of the border, it is high time we all understand that covid has come to stay, and we cannot continue to be managing it as if it is a visitor that has come and will be leaving tomorrow.”
The demonstration is expected to be non-partisan.
“…That is why we the organizers have invited all the various political parties, including the NPP here in Ketu south, and we expect that they will all participate in the demonstration,” Mr. Dzili said.
