Bawku

Bawku is a town in the Upper East Region of northern Ghana, close to the border with Burkina Faso, and the capital of the Bawku Municipal District, which covers a land area of about 257 square kilometres and was set up by Legislative Instrument 2103. It had a population of 119,458 in 2021. A few kilometres away at Pusiga stands the shrine thought to be the tomb of Naa Gbewaa, founder of the Mamprusi, Dagomba and Nanumba peoples, believed to date from the fourteenth century. The area is also known for the long-running Bawku conflict, a chieftaincy and ethnic dispute between the Kusasi and Mamprusi communities that dates back to 1957 and has caused periodic violence, curfews and displacement.