Description
Securing Dagbon: The Security Experience in Northern Ghana, edited by Prof. Kwesi Yankah, presents findings from a United Nations–supported research project that examined security concerns in Dagbon following the 2002 Yendi crisis. The study used the Security Needs Assessment Protocol (SNAP), which emphasizes understanding security from the perspectives of local community members through ethno-methodology.
The book explores the aftermath of the violent chieftaincy conflict that led to the killing of the Ya Na (King of Dagbon), widespread destruction, arms proliferation, and deep social divisions. It highlights how insecurity affected education, health services, livelihoods, governance, and social trust.
The chapters focus on different community groups — youth, women, artisans, and broader kinship networks — showing that security concerns go beyond weapons and violence to include poverty, unemployment, mistrust, political manipulation, and weakened social cohesion. Youth are identified as both victims of insecurity and instruments of conflict, often vulnerable to exploitation due to economic hardship.
