Soldiers reminded of changing trends in armed conflicts

Major General Peter Augustine Blay, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), on Tuesday observed that recent events worldwide, especially in Africa indicated that the nature of armed conflict was changing dramatically from inter-state conflict to intra-state conflicts.

He said it was appropriate to focus on training in combat operations against irregular or paramilitary forces that operate from jungle bases or urban areas with various levels of sophistication in arms and equipment enhanced by detailed knowledge of the local environment.

Maj. Gen. Blay said to counter such operations usually required small, flexible and independent sub-units.

He was delivering the closing address to troops participating in “Ex Tigers; Path 2009” at the Jungle Warfare School at Achiase in the Eastern Region.

Participants were drawn from the three services of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and personnel of the Ghana Police and a four-man observer team from Burkina Faso Armed Forces also took part in the event.

At the end of the five-day tri-service competition, Support Services Brigade emerged the overall winner with 1325.85 points; Northern Command had 1273.35 marks to place second while Southern Command scored 1273.35 points to occupy the third position.

The Ghana Navy and Air Force took the fourth and fifth positions with 1246.55 points and 1109.99 points respectively.

Maj. Gen. Blay stressed that the training was to sustain “our ability to fight in the jungle”.

The CDS called on the general public to provide information on activities of illegal chainsaw operators to the security agencies to enable them keep them off the forest.

He said government was providing the required equipment to enable the security services end armed robbery and other related crimes in the country.

Maj. Gen. Blay congratulated teams that won prizes in the various events, particularly Support Services Brigade for emerging as the overall winners in the competition.

He underscored the importance of the exercise as testing personnel in the GAF in jungle craft and skills in Counter Insurgency Setting, leadership, endurance and inter arm or service cooperation.