This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-34084468
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 0 | Version 1 |
---|---|
Ghana investigates Islamic State recruitment in universities | Ghana investigates Islamic State recruitment in universities |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Ghana's authorities are investigating several universities over links to suspected recruitment for the so-called Islamic State (IS), officials say. | Ghana's authorities are investigating several universities over links to suspected recruitment for the so-called Islamic State (IS), officials say. |
IS agents recruited students after urging them to join radical online forums, National Security Coordinator Yaw Donkor told state media. | |
Mr Donkor confirmed that two Ghanaians had travelled to join IS, the first such cases that have been reported. | |
Ghana has so far been unaffected by Islamist militancy. | |
BBC Africa Live: News updates | |
Mr Donkor said there was "no reason to fear", adding that "only a handful" of Ghanaians had gone to join the militant group. | |
The wealth of IS meant that potential recruits had found the offers made to them by the militants' "irresistible", he added. | |
The recruits had travelled through Burkina Faso or Nigeria, before receiving training at a camp in Niger, and then making the onward journey to Turkey or Syria, the National Security Coordinator said. | |
Mohammad Nazir Nortei Alema, a 25 year old who studied geography at the prestigious Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, was confirmed as one of those who had joined IS. | |
"It's like someone in the family has died," his father Abdul Latif Alema told the BBC on Tuesday, after he had received a Whatsapp message from his son explaining that he was going to join the group. | |
IS, notorious for its brutality, holds vast swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria. | |
But the group has also established a presence in Africa, with militant groups in Nigeria, Egypt and Libya pledging allegiance to it and carrying out bombing campaigns in its name. |