SubSaharan Africa 413
Narrative: The Soviets had provided support for Ghanian president Nkrumah, but
despite the Soviet security advisors on the ground and Nkrumah’s Soviet-trained
presidential guard, Nkrumah was overthrown in February 1966. A number of inci-
dents heightened tensions between these states in the following years. For example,
Ghana accused a Soviet freighter of smuggling weapons into the country and denied
medical licenses to Ghanian students who had trained in the USSR on the grounds that
their training was inadequate. Then, in August 1968, Ghana forced a Soviet passenger
plane that had entered Ghanian airspace to the ground.
This dispute began on October 10, 1968, when Ghana seized two Soviet fishing
trawlers and their 52 crew members suspected of arms smuggling to restore Nkrumah
to power. A week later the Soviet embassy held a press conference in which it demanded
release of the trawlers. According to the Soviet account, strong winds and currents
pushed both trawlers, which suffered damaged engines, into Ghanian waters. Ghana
remained unconvinced. On November 14, Ghana announced its intention to keep the
trawlers until the captains, Boris Chernokolov and Valentin Petrovich Parhomenko,
cooperated in an investigation into whether the ships had entered Ghanian waters.
The next day the Soviet ambassador, Vasily S. Safronchuk, protested the treatment of
the crews but to no avail. Ghana continued to detain the boats and crew into the new
year while investigating the situation. Several Ghanians who had followed Nkrumah
to Guinea claimed to receive Soviet military training while there. One of Nkrumah’s
former bodyguards testified that the seized fishing trawlers were permanently based at
Conakry Harbor, Guinea, where Nkrumah had taken refuge, and that one of the boat’s
crew members was a Soviet major who had given lectures on security in Ghana during
Nkrumah’s administration. Another said he was a driver for one of the crew members
while the crew member taught security in Ghana. Additional eyewitnesses said one of
the captains had lived in Conakry for a year before the seizures. The trawler captains
denied these statements and insisted they had sailed directly from the Black Sea.
The Soviets decided to apply military pressure. On February 16, 1969, the Soviets
announced that two missile ships, a submarine, and a tanker were paying a visit to Cona-
kry until the 20th. On February 20, the Soviet military vessels left Conakry and headed
slowly for Ghanian waters. That day Ghana’s leader, Lt General Ankrah, stated that the
Soviet crews would soon be released. Five days later Ghana fined the captains about $200
each for operating in Ghanian waters without a license, and on February 27, the captains
appeared in Accra before the Amissah Commission, which was investigating an alleged
plot to return Nkrumah to power. On March 3, Ghana released the trawlers and all of the
crew except the two captains and one sailor, whom the Ghanians wanted help from to
investigate an Nkrumah plot. Ghana released those three on March 19.
Coding changes: End Date changed from February 28, 1969.
368 Lithuania/411 Equatorial Guinea
MID#4214
Dispute Number: 4214
Date(s): November 10, 2000 to December 20, 2000