Ghanaians Walk To Observe AU And UN Days

Hundreds of Ghanaians made up members of the security services and their civilian counterparts undertook a health walk to mark the African Union and United Nations Peacekeepers' days in Accra.

The walk, which took one and half hours started at 0645 hours at the premises of the Ministry Foreign Affairs, through the 37 Military Hospital and made a turn at the Christ the King Catholic Church road.

The participants marched from the Christ the King Church to the Cantonment Post Office to the Airport City and ended up at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs amidst drumming and singing from a segment of the Police band at 0815 hours.

The 350 participants were made up of the Military, the Police service, Immigration Service, Prison service, Planning Committee members of both the African Union and United Nations Peacekeepers days, members of the Diplomatic Corps, UN Agencies, officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and relevant Ministries and Agencies.

The International Day for the United Nations Peacekeepers is commemorated annually on May 29, in honour of all men and women who have served and continue to serve the UN Peacekeeping Missions.

The day is also set aside to appreciate and acknowledge the courage and dedication of uniformed and civilian personnel who have served in various professional and administrative capacities to ensure the success of peacekeeping operations.

In Ghana, the Planning Committee have already held two pre-celebration meetings that preceded the walk and would hold a high level panel discussion at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Centre on May 24 before the flag-raising ceremony on May 29 that would climax the celebration.

The African Union, formerly Organisation of African Unity on the other hand was established on May 25, 1963 and the day is celebrated annually to commemorate the foundation of the Union throughout Africa and beyond.

It is also to commemorate the falling heroes of the Union that started the struggle with the first pre-Organisation meeting in 1958 in Accra at the behest of the then Prime Minister Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

Addressing the participants at the end of the walk, Mr Damptey Asare, a Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration commended them for their endurance and gave the assurance that his outfit would continue to collaborate with other Ministries and Agencies for the achievement of their goals.

'We are grateful to all of you for coming and I believe that after the walk more synergies will be drawn to make the celebrations of the days successful.