The killing of Ghanaian tomato traders in Burkina Faso eight days ago has opened a bitter front in Ghana’s parliament over whether President John Dramani Mahama’s decision to invite Captain Ibrahim Traoré to his January inauguration contributed to the deaths, a claim that a senior Majority legislator has dismissed as political opportunism of the worst kind.
At least 20 people, including seven Ghanaians who were burnt beyond recognition, died on Saturday, February 14, 2026, in a jihadist assault on the northern Burkinabè town of Titao, in attacks claimed by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an Islamist militant group affiliated with al-Qaeda. The Ghanaian victims were part of a trading group that had crossed the border to purchase tomatoes and onions. Eric Tuffour, President of the Ghana National Tomato Traders and Transporters Association, said the terrorists had identified the vehicle as Ghanaian and specifically targeted the men seated on top of the truck, killing eleven on sight, before setting the vehicle ablaze with the driver inside after he locked himself in the cabin to avoid being shot.
The Association subsequently suspended all tomato imports from Burkina Faso, driving up local tomato prices as Ghana grappled with the combined shock of grief and supply disruption. On February 17, a Ghana Air Force aircraft was dispatched to Burkina Faso to medically evacuate survivors, with President Mahama, speaking at the Ghana Tree Crops Investment Summit, condemning the attack as a mindless act of terror and calling for renewed regional security cooperation.
Into that emotionally charged moment stepped former Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul, the Bimbilla Member of Parliament (MP), who framed the attack in explicitly diplomatic terms. Nitiwul argued that during peak periods of terrorist violence in Burkina Faso between 2018 and 2021, Ghanaian traders were routinely allowed through without incident because the jihadist groups did not view Ghana as an adversary. He questioned whether inviting Captain Traoré to the January inauguration, and the public enthusiasm that greeted the two leaders meeting, had altered that calculus by signalling alignment with the Burkinabè junta in a conflict where jihadist groups are one of the parties being fought.
James Agalga, Chairman of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee and Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa North, delivered a pointed counter on JoyNews’ Newsfile programme. He argued that the intelligence-sharing breakdown predated this government and traced directly to the previous administration’s decision to publicly accuse Burkina Faso of hiring the Wagner Group, a claim Agalga said caused a rupture in the Accra Initiative, the regional security framework that coordinates counter-terrorism cooperation between Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire. That rupture, he maintained, is what created the security vacuum in which Ghanaian traders became vulnerable. He described Nitiwul’s argument as irresponsible politicisation of a tragedy involving innocent civilians.
Security analyst Godson Bill Ocloo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Africa Centre for Human Security and Emergency Management (ACHSEM), offered a less partisan but equally urgent assessment, warning that the Sahel region now accounts for nearly half of all terrorism-related deaths worldwide and that Burkina Faso consistently ranks among the most affected countries globally. He said the attack illustrated a deliberate jihadist strategy of targeting supply routes and economic actors to sever trade arteries between Burkina Faso and its coastal neighbours, and called for intelligence-led civilian protection, predictive route surveillance, and structured intelligence-sharing between Sahelian and coastal states.
Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture John Dumelo said the government is targeting a 50% reduction in tomato imports from Burkina Faso by end of 2026 through the expansion of domestic irrigation schemes at Tono and Akomadan. The Chamber of Agribusiness announced GH¢20,000 in emergency relief for affected families and plans to construct ten cold storage facilities in the second quarter of 2026.
The political debate over who bears responsibility for the intelligence breakdown and whether Ghana’s diplomatic overtures to Ouagadougou carry security risks will not be resolved before the next trading convoy considers the Titao route. What is already clear is that for the women who trade tomatoes across the northern border, the argument happening in Accra’s parliament is a luxury they do not have time for.
