Kofi Ampeah Woode
Considering the nature of warfare the world over, and its telling effects on all actors – state and non-state – a 2-week extremely essential course dubbed Protection of Civilians (POC) has commenced at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), to equip persons involved in peace operations, to mitigate the effects of conflicts on civilians.
The second POC Course in 2023, which is one of the flagships at West Africa’s elite Training Centre of Excellence (TCE) – KAIPTC, commenced on Monday 8 May 2023, with 24 participants from 12 countries, namely; Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, The Gambia Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia and Uganda.
Millions of civilian victims of violence and war are subjected to forced displacement, hostage-taking, rape, torture, extrajudicial executions, and massacres. Classical warfare, involving armed forces of two or more States, is not unlikely anymore as we can see it in the Russia-Ukraine, for instance. Non-international armed conflicts, in which official armed forces confront non-state armed groups, however, is still predominant.
The fundamental principle of distinction between civilians and combatants and between civilian and military objectives is often challenged with severe impact on the civilian populations, and can often be the cause of numerous and serious violations of international humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law.
The weaker of the combatants frequently resort to practices that are prohibited under international law, such as; deliberate attacks against the civilian population, hostage-taking and the use of human shields. Those with military supremacy sometimes resort to methods and practices that do not spare civilian populations, and often affect them indiscriminately.
In 2000, the United Nations (UN) first incorporated the protection of vulnerable populations as a key objective, explicitly stated in the revised mandate of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), and thence has authorized several additional peacekeeping missions that explicitly include Protection of Civilians, as a core task of the mandate.
KAIPTC, one of ECOWAS’ three endorsed TCEs, researches and trains in peacekeeping programs and activities, and since its inception in 2004, has trained over 25,000 military, police and civilian staff for various peacekeeping operations across the world.
The POC course is organized in partnership with the Government of Switzerland, and deploys presentations, lectures, breakout-discussions and analysis, with the last two days of the training being used for a scenario-based exercise codenamed ‘CARANA’, to demonstrate knowledge acquired by participants.
Present at the opening of the Course was the Swiss Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana, Togo and Benin – H.E. Simone Giger, and KAIPTC’s Director, Training – Colonel Anorph Akanbong.
