The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Honourable Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has stated emphatically that, the motto at the Ministry when it comes to seeking the welfare and protecting Ghanaian citizens wherever they may find themselves is: “When you touch one Ghanaian, you touch all of us”. This was the reason why the Ministry was swift to evacuate its citizens from South Africa when they felt unsafe due to xenophobic attacks in that country.
He made this remarkable point in a one-on-one interview granted on Key Points, a TV3 Talk Show, on 10th October, 2026.
Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa observed that, “there have been many waves of these xenophobic attacks, but this was the first time that the government of Ghana had acted so swiftly to take our citizens out of harm’s way”. He further explained that “what we did was to make sure that every Ghanaian who felt unsafe, was under attack, who had fled, and there were some who sought refuge in our Mission and in the Church of Pentecost, had been brought them back home safely.”
He added that, being the first country to evacuate its citizens, we were only making sure that those who voluntarily signed up to be evacuated by the Ghana government were safely brough back home.
The Minister stressed that, “we take our consular responsibilities very seriously, and our motto at the Ministry when it comes to these matters is that “when you touch one Ghanaian, you touch all of us”. Any attack on a Ghanaian anywhere in the world is an attack on all of us, and we will immediately mobilise and get our citizens out of harm’s way.”