The transfers bring to 105 the number of detainees now at Guantanamo Bay after a high of nearly 800 prisoners, according to the Pentagon. Fifteen more releases are expected before the month is over – starting with Kuwait fetching its last national in the detention center on Friday.
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The two prisoners, Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby – both Yemeni – have been held since 2002.
Mahmoud Omar Bin Atef and Khalid Al-Dhuby are suspected of participating in hostilities against US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Ghana’s foreign ministry said it is taking these actions in recognition of its responsibility as a member of the global community.
Dozens of countries have received former Guantanamo Bay detainees, including other African states such as Uganda and Cape Verde. According to their (leaked) files, the men had been recommended for transfer as early as 2010.
Ghana’s foreign ministry said that all those being allowed into the country will have their activities monitored.
The United States requested the transfers a year ago and Ghana sent its USA ambassador to Guantanamo Bay to interview the detainees and assess any risk, Boamah said.
The ministry added that they will be able to leave the country after two years.
In 2009, each man was unanimously recommended for transfer by a six-agency task force, if security conditions could be met in the receiving country.
Once the 17 prisoners are transferred, there will be 90 detainees remaining at Guantanamo – marking the first time in a decade the population at the prison has been below 100.
Reports indicate that US Defence Secretary Ashton B. Carter had notified Congress that he has approved 17 proposed transfers of lower-level detainees.
Mr. Bin Atef’s dossier says he was a survivor of a well-known weeklong fight in late November 2001 at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif, where the Northern Alliance had taken hundreds of captured Taliban and foreign fighters.
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Pentagon spokesman Commander Gary Ross told Agence France-Presse that Atef and Dhuby are the first detainees to be sent anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
