A 25-year-old Muslim from Ghana has traveled to an Islamic State training camp, becoming the first known recruit from the West African nation to join the militant group, his family said on Tuesday.

The decision by university graduate Nazir Nortei Alema is likely to shock a country that prides itself on its ability to preserve social harmony and manage political and communal disputes peacefully, in contrast to some of its neighbors.

"We are devastated. Since the news came his mother has been crying," Alema's father Abdul Latif Alema said, adding that he believed IS should be crushed.