260 Peacekeepers For Cote d'Ivoire

President John Agyekum Kufuor has stated that 260 contingent Ghanaian soldiers would soon assume peacekeeping duty in the war torn La Cote d’ Ivoire.

In addition, President Kufuor said as ECOWAS chairman, he would do everything possible to ensure that peace returned to La Cote d’Ivoire and all other troubled parts of the sub-region.

The President said these when he hosted the Diplomatic Corps to the annual New Year reception at the Castle, Osu.

According to President Kufuor, the events in Cote d’Ivoire are of deep concern to the government and people of Ghana, and emphasized that Ghana, a member of the ECOWAS Mediation Council has not wavered in her commitment to the collective efforts of ECOWAS member states to broker peace in that country.

He stressed that the joint efforts by the ECOWAS member states had helped to achieve a measure of truce between the government and the insurgents until the singing of the Marcoussis Accord in France.

He regreted that the implementation of the accord had been under tremendous stress with ECOWAS desperately trying to get the various groups to reach a peaceful solution.

President Kufuor was optimistic that the business-like attitude displayed by Heads of State at the just-ended Addis Ababa Summit of the Africa Union (AU) would be the hallmark of deliberations at continental and sub-regional meetings henceforth.

He noted that there were tumultuous times in the world when threat of war was putting stock markets around the world in turmoil.

The President noted that the heightened sense of insecurity everywhere had had an adverse effect on countries like Ghana, which needed to concentrate on developing their economies.

Mr. Khahil Omar, Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Ghana and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, said that Ghana was moving steadfastly to consolidate her new society in which good governance and the rule of law would prevail.