Workshop on conflict management opens in Accra
Security experts yesterday began a three-day brainstorming workshop on how to improve conflict management and response mechanisms of ECOWAS and other international bodies in peacekeeping operations.
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The resource persons, drawn from the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU), will lead participants, including African peacekeeping veterans, future peacekeeping trainers and American government officials, to examine where peacekeeping operations had failed in the past and fashion out more effective ways of achieving results.
The workshop is also expected to discuss critical topics such as the security environment in West Africa, peacekeeping versus peace enforcement and ECOWAS external partnerships with UN and regional peacekeeping missions.
It is being organised by the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS) at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra.
At the opening, the Charge d’Affaires of the United States Embassy in Accra, Ms Melinda Tabler-Stone, said the workshop would serve as a key element to an ongoing series of military-to-military exercises.
She said participants were expected to analyse and adjust the approaches to conflict resolution in Africa amid a changing security landscape.
“It will also support AfriCOM’s peacekeeping training programmes throughout West Africa,” she said.
Commendation
Ms Tabler-Stone said the US had, for many years, supported peacekeeping missions in West Africa and expressed the commitment of the US to continue to work with Ghana in that regard.
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“Ghana has been a major contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, supplying more than 3,000 policemen, military observers and troops throughout the region.
“Together we are advancing peace and security by countering violent extremism, building national capacities in support of long-term security and combating terrorism through effective governance, development and rule of law,” she added.
AFRICOM
The Deputy Head of AFRICOM in charge of Planning, Policy and Strategy, Brigadier General David San Clemente, said many people seemed to be okay with the status quo in peacekeeping operations and charged the participants to be agents of change.
He said it was significant for security experts to understand the environment and look at past efforts in order to plan for the future.
KAIPTC
The Commandant of the KAIPTC, Major General Obed Boamah Akwa, said West Africa remained challenged by many conflicts, which constituted the main drawbacks to the region’s development.
“It is a situation we cannot wish away, be indifferent to or handle single-handedly. “Certainly, a stronger, enhanced and more targeted engagement of the international community, side by side with regional actors, is needed to help unlock the full potential of the region and prevent the current situation from degenerating into a doomsday scenario,” he said.