The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) has revealed that the existing violent extremism in other countries is affecting the operations of peace keeping missions.

According to the centre, peacekeepers are forced to adapt to volatile environments, thus making their work difficult.

Speaking during a workshop organised in collaboration with the Danish Institute for International Studies on Ghana’s Peacekeeping Experience, the Deputy Commandant of the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Training Centre, Air Commodore George Arko Dadzie says this development is greatly affecting the safety of peacekeepers.

“Peacekeeping missions now operate in far more dangerous, complex and high-risk environments. The threats from criminals and terrorists who have access to powerful modern weapons is posing a major threat to their successful implementation of mandates. This invariably has greatly impacted the ability to operate safely and securely in mission areas and carry out mandated tasks.”

The situation is further compounded by budget cuts and growing expectations that existing missions will continue to use fewer resources to achieve much improved outcomes.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre Prof. Kwesi Aning has called for a reorientation of Ghana’s peacekeeping operations.

“Saying that Ghana is a peace keeper does not project the country and provide it with the kind of image or identity in terms of its orientation. We need to understand that peace keeping has shifted more directly to the centre stage of Ghana’s diplomatic military engagements, but it needs more thinking to redefine the potential for Ghana as a new positive international actor.”

Transforming our identity from a troop contributor to a peace keeper requires the elevation of the Ghanaian peace keeping from a functional imperative to a cognitive orientation that provides and intellectual framework for shaping our elite perceptions around conflict peace and security”.

Meanwhile, the Senior Researcher for the Danish Institute for International Studies Research Institute Peter Albrecht indicated that Denmark has got a lot to learn from Ghana in its activities concerning peacekeeping.

“Denmark is actually not contributing a lot of personnel to peacekeeping missions, and this is a whole debate on who is doing the peacekeeping for the missions. So obviously Denmark and other European countries are paying money into the UN budget for peace keeping, but we are not actually contributing personnel. So, I think if you put it that we are actually learning more from Ghana in the case of peace keeping”.