Col Festus Boahen Aboagye (Rtd) is currently engaged as a teaching consultant at the KAIPTC in Peacekeeping, and for the review of Peacekeeping and International Conflict Resolution (PICR). He is expected to take up contract teaching with the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) effective 2018.

In addition to other international assignments in the fields of Peacekeeping and Peace Support Operations, he was invited to serve on the Save the Children Civil-Military Advisory Board on 1 December 2017.

Col Aboagye (Rtd) served as the Chief Executive Officer of the African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA) Secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya (2013-17). During this period, among others, he facilitated and edited a range of training and policy manuals for the AU, ECOWAS and APSTA.

Before this tenure, he served at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa, as Head of the Training for Peace Programme (2004-09), and subsequently as senior research fellow in the same programme up to 2012.

Major assignments during this period included organising regional police training for the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) and the East African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (EAPCCO), in addition to qualitative peacekeeping research and writing.

After the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Col Aboagye (Rtd) served with the AU as Consultant / Panel Member for the development of the Policy Framework for the African Standby Force (2003), and later as Senior Military Advisor to the Head of the African Mission in Burundi (AMIB) (2003-04), before resigning from AU service in that year.

Prior to this, Festus first served with the OAU (2000-02) as Senior Military Expert for the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict and peace process (OLMEE).

p>Col Aboagye (Rtd) has professional military background. He served in the Ghana Army in a number of positions and units, largely training institutions and headquarters training posts.

He first instructed at the erstwhile Junior Leaders Company (JLC), Kumasi (1979-83); and the then Armed Forces Recruits Training Centre (AFRTS), Tamale (1983-84); as well as Instructor and Second-in-Command at the Ghana Military Academy (GMA), Teshie (1988-91); before briefly tutoring at the Ghana Armed Forces Staff College (Junior Division), Teshie (1987-88).

His parent Unit was 2 Infantry Battalion, Takoradi, where he served as both Platoon Commander and Adjutant (1975-79). His last post was Commanding Officer of GMA (2002).

He is a veteran of several UN peace operations – UN Emergency Force (UNEF) II, 1979, as Unit Adjutant; UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) (1979), as Unit Adjutant, again in 1984, as Company Commander; and as a Military Observer in the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM) (1991-92), including a short deployment to UNPROFOR (Croatia), at inception.

He later commanded ECOMOG Ghanbatt (Task Force) 13 in Liberia (1997-98), for the Electoral Process in Liberia in accordance with the Abuja II Accord of the ECOWAS Peace Plan.

At the time of his assignment to ECOMOG, he was Deputy Director of Army Training at Army Headquarters. He later served as Deputy Director at the Directorate of Planning and Development at the General Headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces, Burma Camp (1998-2000).

At the inception of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), he was posted to the Centre for a short period from Jan-Aug 2000, before embarking on his external duties.

Col Aboagye (Rtd) obtained his basic military education at both the Ghana (1973-74) and Indian (1974-75) Military Academies. He is also a graduate of the US Army Infantry School (USAIS) (1985), the Ghana Armed Forces Staff College, Fort Bening (1986-87), and the British Army Staff College, Camberley (1988).

He is the author of “ECOMOG, A Sub-Regional Experience in Conflict Prevention, Management and Peacekeeping in Liberia”, 1999; “The Ghana Army, A Concise Contemporary Guide to its Regimental Centennial History (1897-1999)”, 1999; and the “Indigenous African Warfare, its Concept and Art in the Gold Coast, Asante and the Northern Territories” in 2011.

He has also authored several articles, papers and book chapters on regional and international conflicts, and participated in a number of national, regional and international seminars on issues of global peace and security.

Col Festus Aboagye (Rtd) is a product of Prempeh College, Kumasi.

cdtghana.org