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Beleaguered Ghanaian Fishermen in Togo Agree to Relocate

Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)
NEWS
May 17, 2004
Posted to the web May 17, 2004

By Ebow Godwin
Lomé Fishing Harbour
Over 2,000 Ghanaian canoe fishermen and their families who live in squatter
settlements inside the Lomé Fishing Harbour have now agreed to relocate to a
new site called Katanga.
This follows a meeting the Lomé Fishing Harbour Authorities held with the
Ghanaian fishermen last week in Lomé.
Top level Ghana Embassy officials including the Head of Chancellery, Kenneth
Bosompem, were also present at the meeting.
The decision by the Ghanaian fishermen to agree to relocate came in the light
of assurances provided by the Harbour Master, Colonel Ali Nadjombe, that the
Lomé Port Authorities will do all they can to make life more comfortable,
hygienic, and safe for the fishermen at their new site.
Colonel Nadjombe promised the Ghanaian fishermen that they were still free to
carry out their legitimate fishing activities in the harbour without any
interference. The only difference is that they will no longer live inside the
Fishing Harbour.
He repeated the rationale behind the present relocation exercise. The Harbour
Master said Togo, as a member of the International Maritime Organisation, was
under obligation to implement the International Protocol on Maritime and
Harbour Security by the end of July, this year.
The Harbour Master told the Ghanaian fishermen that it was therefore in the
interest of their own safety for Togo to implement security measures aimed at
transforming the Lomé Port into a more reliable port with the capacity to
offset piracy, banditry, and other terrorist threats.
Colonel Nadjombe said the present chaotic conditions in which the Ghanaian
fishermen and their families lived in the Harbour rendered the Lomé Port "a
major security risk."
He announced that the authorities will set up a technical team to supervise the
allocation of places to the Ghanaian fishermen at the new site offered them.
"We appreciate the value of friendship that exists between Togo and Ghana at
the moment, and we will not do anything to mar these relations."
A woman fishmonger who was still nervous about the relocation exercise caused
an uproar when she took the microphone to ask "Me Wura, where shall I go?"
meaning "where are we going from here?"
An estimated 7,000 Ghanaian fishermen and their families currently carry out
fishing activities at the Lomé Harbour.

   

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