Ghana arrests demonstrators protesting against the country's economic crisis

Protests over the cost of living, like this one last November in Accra, have become increasingly frequent in Ghana. Police arrested 49 protesters on Thursday, during fresh demonstrations against the cost of living and the economic crisis gripping the country. Once an African success story, Ghana has become locked in a cycle of economic crisis and IMF bailouts. Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images

Protests over the cost of living, like this one last November in Accra, have become increasingly frequent in Ghana. Police arrested 49 protesters on Thursday, during fresh demonstrations against the cost of living and the economic crisis gripping the country. Once an African success story, Ghana has become locked in a cycle of economic crisis and IMF bailouts.

Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images

LAGOS, Nigeria — Police in Ghana arrested protesters on Thursday during demonstrations against the cost of living and the economic crisis gripping the country. Some journalists who were covering the protests, which took place outside the main government building, were among those arrested.

Activists in the West African country accused police of arresting and abusing peaceful demonstrators as well as bystanders. Police said the protesters were banned from assembling there.

An and spiraling cost of living in the last five years have sparked mass upset in Ghana, a country once cast as a in Africa. But security forces have often clamped down on protests that have been taking place with increasing over the past two years.

they were arrested for "the flagrant disregard of a court process" served on the organizers, , who countered that the process had not resulted in an injunction stopping them from demonstrating.

Protesters said bystanders dressed in black and red — the colors associated with of the anti-government, cost-of-living protesters — were also arrested.

Two BBC journalists said they were among several journalists detained by police, and have since been released.

A lawyer at a police station where protesters were held, who asked not to be named for security reasons, says the protesters were arrested purely for exercising their democratic right.

"The insanity is, the president comes from a legal background and has been involved in at least one very well-known demonstration," the lawyer told NPR, referring to President Nana Akufo-Addo's past as a human rights lawyer and involvement in protests before he became president in 2016. "So the belief would be that in light of the spirit of democracy, the government would allow people to peacefully express their voice and that there would be no curtailing of that voice. What if they were coming out to praise the president — would this thing have happened?"

have blamed the government for and criticized spending on unpopular, expensive projects, such as a new, 5,000-capacity national , commissioned by the government and costing over $400 million.

In May, Ghana signed a loan with the International Monetary Fund worth $3 billion — its from the IMF since 1957.