Accra, June 26, GNA- A Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Ms Margrethi Loj, on Friday acclaimed the commitment of women contingents of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to peace keeping operations at conflict- ravaged countries. Ms Loj, Special Representative to the UN Missions in Liberia (UNMIL), gave the commendation when she called on the Defence Minister, Lt Gen. Joseph Smith in Accra.

She urged the GAF to recruit more women to be deployed to peace keeping missions. Ms. Loj was in Ghana at the invitation of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre. She said gender balance was necessary for troops on missions in countries recuperating from the afflictions of war, hence the devotion of UN International Peacekeeping day to the women contingents. She said Ghana had the highest representative of female soldiers on mission in Liberia.

Maj. Gen. Peter Augustine Blay, Chief of the Defence Staff, who deputised for the Defence Minister thanked the Danish government for committing 15 million dollars, for peace keeping training institutions in Ghana and additional 700 thousand dollars for peacekeeping operations.

He said the Bundase Pre Peace Operations Training Camp where troops were trained before they are deployed to missions abroad, needed permanent structures to facilitate preparations for such assignments. Maj. Gen. Blay said Ghana would continue to commit its troops to peace keeping efforts as evident in the fact that the country was the first to deploy troops to war-torn Liberia.