British envoy meets Ghana army chief over Mali operations

The British High Commissioner in Ghana,  Mr Peter Jones, has paid a courtesy call on the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Lt Gen. Peter Augustine Blay, in Accra on Thursday.

It said the call was to enable him to familiarize himself with the Ghana Armed Forces’ preparedness for the December 7 elections and other sub-regional situations.

A statement copied to the GNA on Thursday said the meeting was to provide the platform for them to discuss Ghana’s involvement in the ECOWAS peacekeeping operations in Mali as well as assess how Britain could assist Ghana’s effective participation in the mission.

Lt. Gen. Blay said the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) was well organized and adequately prepared to provide security needed to ensure peaceful and incident-free elections in Ghana.

“The GAF is well resourced and ready to deal with situations that will disturb law and order in the country,” he said.

He said GAF recognized its role to support the police which has the primary role to ensure adequate security measures were provided for the elections and called on the British government to provide GAF additional equipment for the Mali mission.

Mr Jones said Britain was ready to provide GAF additional equipment in order to complete the country’s readiness for deployment for the Mali mission.

Source: GNA