Ghana will articulate Africa’s interest on UN Security Council — Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Ghana will define Africa’s interest in the deliberations of the United Nations Security Council.

He said Ghana would ensure that Africa’s voice “is heard loud and clear” and that matters affecting the continent would be well articulated on the Council.

The President made the pledge when he opened the second edition of the Kofi Annan Peace and Security Forum at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping and Training Centre at Teshie, near Accra.

The two-day Forum is being held under the theme: “Democracy and Governance in the Context of Complex Crises in West Africa.”

The theme coincides with the 20th anniversary of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance adopted by ECOWAS Heads of State in December 2001.

The forum, which brought together over two hundred delegates, including some former African Heads of State and high-level diplomats from governmental and intergovernmental organisations, as well as political, governance and security experts aims at building the political will for good governance and democratic consolidation in West Africa.

Ghana was successfully elected as Africa’s representative on the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member for the years 2022-2023.

President Akufo-Addo said with the continent faced with multiple threats to the territorial integrity of some states, with many civilian populations under serious threats, “it will be our position on the Council that, now is not the time for the Security Council to reduce its peacekeeping mandates on the continent.”

“On the contrary, it should look to increasing them. We must not, on the global scale, be caught in a ‘penny wise, pound foolish’ scenario,” he said.