Kawuro Kwasi David, leader of displaced Ghanaians in the Ivorian town of Vonkoro, has rejected claims that 8,000 refugees in Côte d’Ivoire have returned home to Ghana, calling the figures misleading and unverified.
Meeting with Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, deputy ranking member of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Kawuro stressed that the reality on the ground contradicts the official account.
“We are a little over 5,000 in this camp, and the Foreign Affairs Minister said 8,000 of us in Côte d’Ivoire have returned. Why is nobody from this camp – the largest one – part of the 8,000 claimed?” he asked.
He further questioned how the numbers were compiled without direct contact. “Neither the Foreign Affairs Minister nor any embassy staff came here or to the other refugee settlements. How were they able to conclude that 8,000 have gone back to Ghana?”
Kawuro, also assembly member for the Bale Electoral Area in Ghana’s Bole District, explained that displacement is spread across multiple camps.
More than 13,000 fled to Côte d’Ivoire when violence erupted in Gbiniyiri, he said, with about 5,000 now in Vonkoro and the rest in Dagbekura, Gbotogbo, Tchormiikura, Masiiteen and other villages. Some others, he added, crossed into Burkina Faso.
He suggested that the government’s figure of 8,000 returnees may have been derived by simply subtracting Vonkoro’s 5,000 from the original 13,000 displaced.
Despite a strong desire to return, Kawuro said many fear how they will survive in Ghana after losing homes, farms and livestock. “It is our desire to go back, but to which home really, and to eat what? Where will we sleep? Our livestock are gone, houses burned and farms completely destroyed,” he lamented.
The Minority in Parliament dispatched a delegation, led by Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, to Côte d’Ivoire to meet the displaced communities.
After arriving in Abidjan on 17 September 2025, the team visited Vonkoro the following day, interacted with the refugees and made a donation before returning to Ghana with their findings.
