Conflict and crisis management course opens at GAFCSC

Accra, June 4, GNA - Major-General Kwesi Yankson, Commandant of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) on Thursday said management of current conflicts and crisis required a multi-faceted approach, with emphasis on inter-sectoral, institutional and agency cooperation and coordination.

He said disasters, whether man-made or natural, had been found to be catastrophic and a destroyer of human life, infrastructure and the environment.

Gen Yankson, who was opening a three-week conflict and management course at the College, noted that the extent of destruction had often been so devastating that affected countries had been incapable of coping with it alone.

The aim of the course, among other things, was to provide participants with a clear understanding of how to manage conflict and crisis to enable them work more effectively, efficiently and cohesively in time of crisis.

It is also to increase the national potential for conflict and crisis management in order to minimize loss of lives, property and reduce human suffering to eventually develop a more resilient, safe and secured nation.

Gen Yankson reminded participants of the devastating effects of recent conflicts and crisis in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan, Iraq, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts and said those examples should not give the impression that conflicts and crisis management should deal solely with finding peaceful solutions to them.

He noted that apart from defending the territorial integrity of a state, an equally important concern that should pre-occupy governments, and everyone should be conflict and crisis management.