Violent Incidents has decreased from 143 in the 2nd quarter of 2023 to 122 in the 3rd quarter representing a decrease by 15% in FOSDA’s 2023 3rd quarter monitoring, with a difference of 21 incidents.
Even though the period recorded a decline, the highest count of violent incidents was recorded in the Ashanti Region with 25 cases representing 21% of total incidents. This is the first time the Ashanti region has led in the violent incidents counts on regional basis in 2023. Central Region follows Ashanti Region with 22 incidents, representing 18% after consistently topping the chart in the first two quarters of 2023. Eastern Region recorded 20 incidents representing 17% Greater Accra recorded 15 incidents representing 12%, followed by the Western Region which recorded 10 incidents representing 8%.
Northern and Upper East Regions recorded 5 incidents each representing 4% for each and Bono recorded 4 incidents representing 3%. Western North, North East and Oti Regions recorded 3 incidents each representing 2% for each. In the same way, Volta, Bono East and Ahafo also recorded 2 incidents each representing 2% for each. Upper West Region recorded one (1) incident representing 1%. Only the Savannah Region did not record an incident in the monitoring period making it the safest region for the country, during the period under review.
The data shows that out of the 7 categories of violence being monitored only four (4) categories actually recorded cases in this third quarter, including Physical Violence 86 cases, representing 70%; Gun-related violence 30 representing 25%; Sexual violence 5 cases representing 4% and psychological violence 1 case representing 1%. The remaining categories did not record any incident. Gun violence also saw a reduction from 37 incidents recorded in the second quarter to 30 in this quarter.
In terms of lethality, a total of One-hundred and Twelve (112) injuries and 76 deaths were recorded during the period under review with more than 45% of injuries and death being men. Unspecified injuries amounted to 43 (38%) and deaths 16 (21%) respectively.
The month of July recorded the highest number of violent incidents with Forty-eight (48) violent incidents out of the total of 122 violent incidents recorded from July to September 2023.
The data in this report emanates from the open-source monitoring exercise of 10 major media outlets in Ghana, covering both online and newspaper sources by FOSDA.