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Germany identifies Africa’s peace and security topmost
priority
Accra, Aug. 31, Ghanadot/GNA – The
Federal Republic of Germany on Monday stated that peace and
security should be viewed as the topmost priority for
accelerated development in Africa.
Mr Hans Christian Winkler, Deputy German Ambassador to
Ghana, said: “Germany's policy towards Africa is
value-based; its principles are respect for human rights,
democracy and the rule of law and peaceful resolution of
conflicts.
“Yet Germany also has clearly defined interests. As a major
exporting nation we need a reliable and well-functioning
world trade system, which cannot exist without peace,
security and stability.”
Mr Winkler stated this during the opening session of a
three-week training on “Paradigms in Peacebuilding, Trends
of Conflict and Mechanisms for Conflict Transformation”
organized by the West Africa Peacebuilding Institute (WAPI).
About 40 participants from West Africa, Uganda, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Chad, Central African Republic,
Cameroon, Italy and Lebanon are attending the session being
sponsored by the German Embassy and GTZ Accra.
Mr Winkler said although the continent had become safer as
many parts of the continent were now enjoying the benefits
of stability, conflicts and strife existed in places such as
the Sudan, Chad, the Congo and the Horn of Africa.
Mr Cletus Avoka, Minister of the Interior, said peace and
security were cardinal ingredients for the development of
any nation, therefore West Africa civil society activists
and governments must collectively work together to identify
early warning signals and deal with them.
Mr Avoka also expressed concern about the proliferation of
small arms and light weapons in the sub-region and called on
civil society activists to collaborate with governments to
combat the trend.
The Executive Director of West Africa Network for
Peacebuilding (WANEP) Mr Emmanuel Bombande, said the
training would empower participants in conflict prevention,
early warning and early responses and transformation
processes.
He said WAPI used unique methodology that combined local
knowledge of peace building with case studies from the
sub-region, drawing on specific experiences and expertise.
WAPI is essentially a forum for peace building practitioners
from all over West Africa and beyond, to network, coordinate
and share experiences, best practices.
Mr Bombande said the West African sub-region had been
confronted over the last three decades with violent and
destructive conflicts with grave lingering consequences.
He said the loss of life and destruction of infrastructure
as a result of violent conflicts did not only create
instability but threatened the sustenance effort of
promoting human security.
Dr. Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, an international security expert,
said conflict over the past decades had retarded the
development agenda of the founding fathers of Africa.
“The basis for the formation of the Organization of African
Unity, now the African Union, has been eroded through
mismanagement, governance and greed,” he said.
Dr Aning called for a paradigm shift to deal with conflicts
that undermined human security.
He also urged African countries to focus on the new
challenges of conflicts, which included proliferation of
arms, drugs, human trafficking and managing of the
continent’s huge resources.
WAPI was established to provide specialized, intensive, and
culturally sensitive training in conflict transformation and
peacebuilding for individuals, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs),
Policymakers and other relevant actors from West Africa and
beyond.
GNA
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