International Peace Support Operations course in Accra

A two-week International Peace Support Operations course intended to equip the military and civil society organisations to ensure peace and stability in Africa has opened at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra.
Ninety participants drawn from 13 African countries including Togo, Nigeria, Zambia, Cote d’Ivoire and some civil society organisations from Ghana are attending the course.
The course is being sponsored by the KAIPTC.
In an address at the ceremony of the programme, the Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. J. H. Smith (retd), said peace support operations had become necessary on the continent as a result of the numerous conflicts and crisis in recent times.
He said Ghana’s contribution to peacekeeping over the last four decades had been commended by the international community and added that the training would further enhance the capacity of personnel in their operations.
“Ghana has been in the forefront of contributing states in peacekeeping operations; today, the country is ranked seventh in troop contribution in the world with over 2,500 troops deployed on peacekeeping missions,” he said.
He said the nature of intra-state conflicts had necessitated a change from traditional peacekeeping to a new generation of multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional peace support operations.
Lt. Gen. Smith commended the centre for initiating the programme and called on the participants to put in their best to make the course a fruitful one.
The Commandant of KAIPTC, AVM C.E.K. Dovlo, said the course was designed to address issues raised as conflicts became more complex and the peace overtures by the international community grew in complexity.
“Today’s peace support operations has seen increasing roles of different actors and participants as opposed to the dominance of the military in the old traditional peacekeeping or peace enforcement environment,” he said.
AVM Dovlo said the course would cover key elements and principal organs of the UN operations and participants would have the opportunity to learn the most up-to-date information about the UN system and the challenges faced during peacekeeping operations.
He urged the participants to share experience from their respective countries in order to increase their knowledge on peacekeeping operations in other countries.