Catholic youth group IYNIGO worried about public safety report on gun use
The Ignatian Youth Network from Ghana, IYNIGO has expressed worry about revelations in the 2019 Ghana Public Safety and Crime Report released on Monday, February 17.
The Christian youth group championing the agenda of peace in Ghana in synch with African Union’s Year of Peace on the theme ‘Silencing the Guns’ is seeking to be the spotlight spreading the peace message across Ghana and beyond.
The public safety and crime report indicate that gun use was the most dominant offensive weapon used in the commission of violent crimes in the year 2019.
The report further notes that violent crime-related deaths were the second-highest following transportation-related deaths in 2019.
”Murder and manslaughter cases keep rising, as the second half of 2019 recorded an increase of 34% over the first half. Aggravated assault and armed robbery cases however reduced marginally between the first and the second half of 2019. Gun use was the most dominant offensive weapon used in the commission of violent crimes in 2019,” the report said.
Speaking in an interview with Newswatch Ghana the assistant coordinator of IYNIGO, Scholastica Barimah averred that the 2019 report on gun use is not something the group is proud about considering the fact that Ghana is getting closer to general elections.
“For us as members of IYNIGO, this cannot be something that we are proud about particularly looking at the fact that we are getting closer to the general elections,” she opined.
“We wish to call on every Ghanaian to be vigilant and discourage any act of violence and more especially the use of guns. It is important for us to silent the guns before they silent us,” she added.
The report further notes that ”violent crime-related deaths was the second highest after transportation-related deaths. Violent crime-related deaths stood at over 249 deaths, representing 29% of all deaths captured within the period. Top three most reported violent crimes were murder/manslaughter, aggravated assault, and armed robbery events.”
Silencing the Guns is an effort by the AU focusing energies into meeting development goals as set out by the Aspirations of Africa’s Agenda 2063, specifically aspiration four which states ”A peaceful and secure African, thereby “making peace a reality for African people.”
Source: Newswatch GhanaRelated Articles
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