Two Guantanamo Detainees Transferred to Ghana

After the USA requested the transfers a year ago, Ghana sent its USA ambassador to the Guantanamo Bay facility to interview the detainees and assess the risk they could pose to the country, Ghana’s Communications Minister Edward Boamah told Reuters. “As a result of those reviews, which examined a number of factors, including security issues, Atef and Al-Dhuby were unanimously approved for transfer by the six departments and agencies comprising the task force”.

Both have been held for more than a decade without charge.

In an exclusive interview on Eyewitness News on Wednesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hannah Tetteh said, “They [Atef and Al-Dhuby] are unable to return to Yemen at the moment” and that the Ghana government has agreed to accept them for a period of two years after which they may leave the country.

The jail was set up following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the U.S. to detain what Washington called “enemy combatants”. The move is part of US President Barack Obama’s drive to close the detention center by the end of his term in office. They arrived in Ghana earlier Wednesday. 105 prisoners are still being held at Guantanamo Bay, including almost 50 who have been cleared for release. He was also alleged to have been a fighter in Osama bin Laden’s 55th Arab Brigade, a guerrilla organization sponsored by al Qaeda.

They each spent just under 15 years at Guantanamo Bay.

The news follows a Pentagon announcement Thursday that two Yemeni detainees had been transferred to Ghana.

“We are aware of the need to protect the security and safety of our own residents and are taking all the necessary steps to make sure that is done”, it said.

The Ghanaian public however, have been unhappy about the development and have been questioning the propriety of the decision taken by the government. Even if Obama’s plan to close the facility wins the unlikely support of Congress, about half that population would remain detained indefinitely in the continental United States.

Ghana’s Foreign Ministry commented on the transfer, stating the two Yemeni nationals would stay in the country for two years, and that the west African nation accepted the alleged terrorists on humanitarian grounds. It said that all those allowed into the country would be monitored.