Ghana pushing back against scourge of urban warfare
Cast an eye around the globe and you will see that we are at the crossroads in the containment of urban warfare.
From the rubbled streets of Aleppo in Syria to the high rises of Donetsk, Ukraine, the playing out of fierce exchanges in our towns and cities is not limited to one region or theatre of conflict, far from it.
Advertisement
To fight back against this deadly phenomenon, national governments must take a holistic approach, one that encompasses matters economic, geographic and military, and they must do so now.
UN Security Council
Indeed, this is the exact argument I made when representing His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government at the meeting of the United Nations Security Council, to which Ghana has been elected as a non-permanent member.
In my speech, I called for UN members to follow a four-pronged approach to ensuring the best possible protection of our citizens from the ravages of urban conflict.
Before I outline these solutions, however, it is important to first define the challenge that we face.
Recent advancements
While no one would disagree that society has benefitted from recent advancements in science and technology, these same advancements have also resulted in the development of sophisticated weapon systems with the potential to wreak havoc on their surroundings.
Combine the use of these weapons with an increasingly urbanised world and the result is armed conflicts that are more deadly, more damaging to the infrastructure and lead to more displacement than ever before.
Now consider the groups that have come to possess such high-level military capabilities, whether it is Boko Haram in West Africa or ISIS in the Middle East and beyond.
Terrorist organisations
These two terrorist organisations have not one iota of respect for human rights conventions and the accepted rules of war.
Indeed, they believe instead in the propagation of ‘total war’, a focus on victory at all costs, where citizens are commandeered as human shields, forced combatants, and often both.
While restraining the fundamentalism of an organisation like ISIS is essential, there are a number of faster, simpler ways of minimising the harm to civilians from urban conflict.
As a start, national authorities should prioritise the integration of civilian protection into the planning and conduct of military operations, instituting initiatives that enshrine effective tactics for doing so.
Military experts
Following these new ‘rules of the game’, to be devised in large part by military experts themselves will, undoubtedly, require humanitarian instincts and operational discipline.
Yet, these are the qualities that differentiate us from the bad actors who wish to do our people harm.
Second, and complementing the required action outlined above, the protection of civilians should be placed at the heart of the international justice system.
International humanitarian law, often slandered by populist agitators, is the de facto guarantor of our rights as global citizens and governments must be resolute in following it.
International community
We must also acknowledge, however, that while the international community can and must work hard to prevent urban conflicts, the grim rewards for terrorist groups of attacking populated areas make them inevitable.
As a result, the strategic mitigation of the impacts of urban conflicts is an essential plank of any policy approach.
Infrastructure for evacuation efforts, designated shelter zones and emergency hospitals need to be put in place in likely hot spots, mirroring the current protocols for natural disasters.
Technological innovation
Indeed, while technological innovation has strengthened our enemies, we need to use our own competences in construction and connectivity to protect the people we serve.
Having worked at the World Bank and Bank of Ghana among other positions, I have spent much of my adult life as an economist.
However, it does not take a master policy maker to understand that rapid urbanisation compounds the threat of urban conflict.
Fortunately, the appropriate response is equally simple.
National governments need to implement policies that radiate economic opportunity from large towns and cities to rural areas, reducing deadly conflicts but also regional inequality in the process.
Fourth industrial revolution
For my Ghana, President Akufo-Addo and I have identified digitisation and automation, the so-called ‘fourth industrial revolution’, as the best way of improving rural opportunity and securing our urban areas.
Taking a step back from complex policy proposals, my message to the international community is simple.
In the face of growing conflict in urban settings, we, as democratic leaders, must take the necessary steps to protect the people who elect us.
And while the challenge at hand may be complex and our opponents unfeeling, a four-pronged approach to urban conflict, encompassing military reform, law and order, investment and sound economic stewardship, will deliver us to a safer, more prosperous future.
