National Peace Council Condoles with bereaved families of Military
Recruitment Stampede
1. Accra, November 13, 2025 – The National Peace Council (NPC) has noted with regret
the unfortunate development which attended the recruitment of our young men and
women into the Ghana Armed Forces 2025/2026 recruitment exercise at the El-Wak
Stadium, yesterday 12 November 2025.

2. The facts available indicates that there were 28 causalities, 12 in critical condition, five
(5) Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and six (6) dead. We also note a similar event occurred
in Kumasi with five (5) individuals sustaining injuries during a separate recruitment
exercise.

3. The National Peace Council condoles and sympathises with the bereaved families for
the loss and wishes the injured speedy recovery.

4. According to the Ghana Statistical Service, Ghana’s youth unemployment rate is at 32%
for those within 15-24, and 22.5% for those within ages 15-35 ages. With these declining
records, the NPC has always taken the position that positive peace in the country is
incomplete when masses of our youth remain unemployed.

5. This occurrence should be a wakeup call on Government, Business owners, and other
stakeholders who have the capacity to create jobs to rise up to the occasion to salvage
the situation.

6. Although the Ghana Armed Forces has halted the exercise yesterday in Accra and
initiated investigation into the stampede, the NPC calls on GAF to consider wider
reforms of the processes for recruitment and explore modern approaches and best
practices to safeguard the integrity of recruitment of Ghanaians into the forces.

7. Indeed, lack of jobs can be recipe for violence and open doors for extremists and terrorist
opportunist to make inroads into our country. We must all work together to address the
menace of youth unemployment in our country because a stitch in time saves nine.
END