UNAMID pre-deployment course ends

Accra, July 18, GNA - Some 65 police officers scheduled to be deployed to the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on Friday completed a two-week pre-deployment training course at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra. The training, organised by the KAIPTC and sponsored by the German government, was aimed at better preparing the officers, who are drawn from Ghana, Nigeria, El Salvador and Bangladesh to meet the challenges in the mission area.

Only two weeks ago, Darfuri rebels ambushed a UNAMID convoy, resulting in the death of seven peacekeepers including a Ghanaian, with over 20 others sustaining several degrees of injury, seven being critical.

Mr Patrick Acheampong, Inspector-General of Police, who extolled Ghana's commitment to world peace, asked the officers to make good use of the training they had acquired in order to become better peacekeepers in the quest for world peace.

He noted that successful peacekeeping was always dependent on great teamwork and spirit, exemplary discipline by contingents and utmost respect and recognition for the laws, cultures and customs of the host nation.

He tasked the trainees to quickly study the norms of that particular area to bring honour and recognition to their respective countries. Ghana has about 467 Ghanaian police officers serving in Sudan, including 70 women. Mr John-Erik Jensen, a representative of the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations, said the UN was more resolved to ensure that it brought relief to the population of Darfur and would strengthen its efforts at preparing personnel before their deployment, because incidents such as the one of July 8, 2008 where several peacekeepers lost their lives were anticipated to continue. UNAMID is the first-ever hybrid mission between the United Nations and the African Union. Troops are predominantly African, with contributions from other countries when African nations are unable to meet the force's requirements. At full strength, UMANID would be the largest mission ever deployed by the UN and would cost an estimated 2.6 billion dollars per year.