Traditional and religious leaders play an important role in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and social cohesion across Ghana. They actively address local tensions and disputes, promote interfaith and interethnic tolerance, and contribute to preventing the conditions that can enable violent extremism.

Christian and Muslim leaders regularly engage in dialogue to strengthen religious tolerance, peace, and stability, and to deepen relationships between faith communities. Religious institutions such as the Christian Council of Ghana, the Catholic Church, the Assemblies of God Ghana, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission Ghana actively mediate conflicts and promote peace through education, dialogue, and capacity building. Notably, Sheikh Osmanu Sharubutu, the National Chief Imam, has consistently used diplomacy, religious authority, and social capital to encourage interfaith dialogue and prevent tensions, including intra-Muslim conflicts. In July 2022, he partnered with the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference to host a Muslim–Christian dialogue aimed at fostering peace and religious tolerance.

Faith-based organisations have also contributed to institutionalised peace infrastructures. The Catholic Church played a leading role in the establishment of the National Peace Council (NPC), which serves as a national mechanism for mediation and conflict prevention. Religious leaders continue to serve within NPC structures, leading mediation, dialogue, conflict resolution, and peace education initiatives that are directly relevant to preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). Through the NPC, Christian and Muslim leaders work jointly to promote tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and non-violent engagement.

The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference is also implementing the Sahel Peace Initiative, which focuses on preventing violent extremism in Ghana and the wider Sahel through interreligious dialogue, strengthened social cohesion, and socioeconomic and environmental resilience.

At the local level, religious leaders conduct peace education, awareness campaigns, and community sensitisation on the risks of violent extremism, the importance of vigilance, and the need to report suspicious activities to security authorities. In northern border areas, sermons and teachings are used to discourage extremist ideologies and reinforce tolerance. Religious leaders often collaborate with traditional authorities to mobilise local resources and strengthen community resilience, and they frequently act as intermediaries by relaying early warning information from communities to security agencies.

Traditional authorities also play a key preventive role by mediating land, chieftaincy, and interethnic disputes, which can otherwise create openings for extremist exploitation. Leaders such as the Asantehene, the Nayiri, and the Yagbonwurawere instrumental in resolving the Dagbon chieftaincy conflict through sustained dialogue, reconciliation, and negotiated settlement. The Asantehene has also led mediation efforts in the Bawku conflict between the Kusasi and Mamprusi communities, submitting a report to the President, John Dramani Mahama, on 16 December 2025. Given Bawku’s proximity to border areas of Burkina Faso and Togo that have experienced violent extremist attacks, achieving a peaceful resolution remains critical for preventing violent extremism and terrorism. It is also notable that in certain respects the Asantehene may have inadvertently intensified the conflict given that one faction perceived his role as partial.