The Human Factors in the Fight Against Terrorism and Fight Against Financing Terrorism courses have successfully opened jointly at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), with funding support from the Government of Germany through the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
The three-day training programmes aim to equip participants with relevant knowledge and practical skills to understand the human factors that contribute to terrorism, strengthen efforts to combat terrorist financing, and enhance approaches to preventing and responding to emerging security threats.
The training brings together military officers, police personnel and representatives from other institutions and organisations across Africa to share experiences, strengthen professional knowledge and explore collaborative approaches to counterterrorism.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Commandant, Brig. Gen. Lawrence Deku, noted that West Africa’s security landscape was undergoing profound changes, with extremist networks expanding across the Sahel and increasingly encroaching on coastal states.
He described Ghana as a beacon of stability but cautioned against complacency, noting that terrorist threats continue to evolve, adapt and exploit existing vulnerabilities. He explained that the two courses address complementary dimensions of the fight against terrorism: the financial resources that sustain terrorist activities and the individuals who plan, facilitate and execute them.
“The logic of these two courses is simple: terrorism survives on money and on people — on the funds that sustain it and on the human beings who plan, facilitate and execute it. To defeat it, we must follow the money and strengthen the people. The CFT course addresses the first; the Human Factors course addresses the second. Together, they form two halves of one coherent national effort,” he stated.
Brig. Gen. Deku further highlighted that the courses would incorporate case studies from Ghana and the wider region, practical exercises and peer learning to enhance participants’ understanding and operational capacity.
He also emphasised the critical role of private-sector institutions, particularly banks, mobile money operators and foreign exchange bureaus, in detecting and reporting suspicious financial transactions, describing them as the first line of defence against terrorist financing.
Also addressing participants, Ms Bianca Heldt Kwame stressed the importance of making terrorist financing activities visible and denying extremist networks the resources they need to operate.
She commended Ghana for establishing a strong legal and institutional foundation to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, citing the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044), the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2008 (Act 762), as amended, and the mandate of the Financial Intelligence Centre as important components of the country’s response.
She, however, cautioned that tackling terrorist financing alone would not address the root causes of terrorism, noting that ideology and desperation also play significant roles in sustaining extremist activities.
“Money is merely the fuel. The real engine of terrorism is not just the dollar, FCFA or the cedi, but the ideology and the desperation that allow these funds to be collected and used. If we only fight the money, we are treating the symptoms, not the disease,” she emphasised.
