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Agotime-Afefame youth desert town
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A first-time visitor to the border town of Agotime-Afegame in the Volta Region is struck by the empty houses in the town.
The reason is that majority of the young adults in the area have ‘fled’ the town to other parts of the country in search of comfort and jobs.
• A woman abandons her bags of charcoal due to the absence of market • A deserted house at Agotime-Afegame
For years, the people of Agotime-Afegame had made their fortune from cross-border trade with neighbouring Togo and also by selling their bountiful harvests of vegetable in ready markets at Ho, Kpetoe, Ziope and other parts of the region.
The massive storey buildings in the town which are now decaying depict lost years of wealth and glory.
In the PNDC era under Flt-Lt J.J Rawlings, Agotime-Afegame was said to be an important spot for intelligence gathering from across the border and that guaranteed security in the town.
Today, Agotime-Afegame is a pale shadow of its excellent past.
For some time now, the people of the border town have been held “hostage” in their homes.
This follows heavy rains which destroyed various portions of the 9.5kilometre untarred road from Agotime-Beh, along the Ho-Aflao road, to the town.
A journey on the road by car which under normal circumstances takes 10 minutes can now take more than one-and-a-half hours due to the nightmarish nature of the road.
In the absence of cellular phone signals, the community which has about 1,300 inhabitants is now in a grave state of uncertainty as the people can hardly contact their relatives in other parts of the country.
The road continues to Kpordzaxo in Togo which is just metres away from Agotime-Afegame, and then to the Republic of Benin.
That international road could rightly be described as an “international ruin”.
In times of downpours the stretch becomes a river course making it totally unusable and further tightening the hostage status of the people of Agotime-Afegame.
Now, the border is still shut, depriving them of their livelihood and with the nature of what is meant to be the road leading to the town, the people cannot sell their farm produce anywhere.
When some journalists waded through the muddy waters and visited the area last month, the atmosphere was a scary one.
The sick cannot access healthcare outside the town.
Plans to bury the dead in the land of their brothers and sisters at Kpordzaxo are frustrated by the official location of Kpordzaxor in Togo.
The road from the Beh junction to the town was constructed in the early 1970s and for more than 48 years the only rehabilitation was occasional reshaping.
In the absence of potable water, the people of Agotime-Afegame rely on River Tordze which according to local residents, is so polluted that one would not even want to use to flush the toilet.
With no link road, no cellular service and no potable water in the wake of little food stocks and an uncertain future, the people of the food basket are gripped with anxiety.
The town once known for wealth has been brought to its knees.
Citizens of the Agotime-Afegame who live in other parts of the country are now avoiding the nightmare in their hometown by keeping their distance from the town.
From Alberto Mario Noretti, Agotime-Afegame
African leaders have been urged to strengthen political commitment and domestic investment to end preventable maternal deaths and AIDS by 2030.
The call comes as African health ministers and policymakers meet in Accra to deliberate on health financing, health security and universal health coverage across the continent.
Mr Edouard Bizimana, Burundi’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and Development Cooperation, made the call on Tuesday at the opening of the African Union’s (AU) 25th Extraordinary Summit on Health in Accra.
He said Africa needed increased domestic investment to build resilient health systems as it continued to grapple with infectious diseases and the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Mr Bizimana, who is also Chairperson of the AU Executive Council, said although Africa accounted for nearly 17 per cent of the world’s population, it bore 24 per cent of the global disease burden while having less than three per cent of the global health workforce and only one per cent of global health expenditure.
“Despite maternal mortality declining by nearly 40 per cent since 2000, Africa still accounts for about 70 per cent of maternal deaths globally, while almost two-thirds of people living with HIV reside on the continent,” he said.
Mr Bizimana said the growing burden of NCDs was placing additional pressure on already stretched health systems.
“These figures are not merely statistics. They represent painful human realities, preventable losses and unacceptable inequalities, they remind us that health is not an expense it is a strategic investment and a prerequisite for our sovereignty and development. “he said.
Mr Bizimana said recent global health emergencies had exposed Africa’s vulnerability and underscored the need to expand local production of medicines and vaccines, strengthen the health workforce and improve emergency preparedness.
“Our citizens expect resilient health systems where every mother can give birth safely, every child has access to essential healthcare and every African enjoys quality health services regardless of where they live,” he said.
The two-day summit, being held ahead of the 20th Extraordinary Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government, has brought together health ministers, policymakers and health stakeholders to identify solutions to Africa’s health financing and security challenges.
Madam Florence Samizi, Tanzania’s Deputy Health Minister, called for stronger collaboration among AU Member States to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage.
The summit is being held on the theme: “Advancing Justice, Equality and Universal Health Coverage: Ending AIDS, Tuberculosis, Improving Maternal Health, Addressing Endemic Non-Communicable and Neglected Tropical Diseases in Africa.”
The meeting is expected to adopt the Accra Declaration, a roadmap to strengthen Africa’s health systems and advance health sovereignty by 2030. -GNA
Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana’s Department of Political Science, Dr. Joshua Jebuntie Zaato says the imprisonment of the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, will have little meaning unless it leads to a broader crackdown on illegal mining.
In a post on his Facebook page on the July 21, 2026, Dr. Zaato said the judgment should mark the beginning of efforts to completely eradicate galamsey and hold all those involved accountable, regardless of their political affiliation.
He said the country must work towards restoring polluted rivers, protecting forests and ensuring that people implicated in illegal mining activities are prosecuted.
According to him, those the President has publicly acknowledged to be involved in galamsey should face prosecution.
He called for the prosecution of district chief executives (DCEs), members of Parliament (MPs) and senior political party officials who have been accused of engaging in or supporting illegal mining.
Dr. Zaato further urged the government to take decisive action to end the destruction of the country’s forests caused by galamsey.
He maintained that the imprisonment of Chairman Wontumi would only have a lasting impact if it results in a comprehensive and impartial fight against illegal mining across the country.
By: Jacob Aggrey
