US Forces in Ghana to provide humanitarian assistance

About 150 United States Marines and Navy Personnel on Wednesday made an amphibious landing on the shores of Mankoadze in the Central Region to begin a four-day training programme with their Ghanaian counterparts.

The exercise dubbed - "West African Training Cruise 2002" was aimed at providing humanitarian disaster relief assistance to the people of Mankoadze.

It involved the landing of troops to defeat dissident, who had taken over the area, and extend assistance to the people. One hundred and five officers and men of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) made up of 31 from the Navy and 74 from the Army took part in the exercise.

Sub Lieutenant Michael Larbi, of the Directorate of Public Relation of GAF, said the programme, which is organised every two years was a multinational exercise between US and West African troops.

This year, Ghana and Benin were the only two West African countries that opted for the exercise but Benin could not make it. The whole exercise was in four phases.

The first two phases involved the movement of troops in four ships from Sekondi to Mankoadze and the landing and clearing of insurgents on the Mankoadze beach.

The third and the fourth phases would take place on Thursday and would involve the provision of humanitarian relief assistance to the inhabitants and the withdrawal of troops.