| Ghana Armed Forces |
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|---|---|
Military parade during 50th anniversary celebrations |
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| Founded | 1960 |
| Service branches | Army Navy Air Force |
| Headquarters | Accra, Ghana |
| Manpower | |
| Military age | 18 years of age (2002) |
| Expenditures | |
| Percent of GDP | 2.0 (FY 10) |
The Ghana Armed Forces consists of the Army, Navy, and the Air Force.[1] It is supervised by the Ministry of Defence (Ghana). With around 7,000 personnel serving in the Ghanian military, Ghana has the lowest ratio of active troops per thousand citizens in the world, standing at 0.33. However, the Ghanaian military is one of the most professional and up-to-date militaries in West Africa. The Ghanaian military is primarily composed of the Army, which forms the pre-eminent service, more important than the Air Force or Navy.
Ghana's supreme military commander is the President of The Republic, with the day-to-day running of the armed forces being managed by the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff. The Ministry of Defence and Central Defence Headquarters are both located in Accra. Accra, in the British colony of the Gold Coast, was also the location of the British Army’s Headquarters West Africa Command which remained there until its disbandment in 1956.
The Ghanaian military often has to make do with poorly-serviced weaponry and equipment due to lack of maintenance training and capability. As a result, maintenance tasks are often contracted to U.N. and other foreign military advisors and technicians.
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Ghana's modern military was formed after independence in 1957. From 1966 the military was extensively involved in politics, mounting several coups. Kwame Nkrumah had become Ghana's first Prime Minister when the country became independent in 1960. Nkrumah's rule wore on, he began to take actions which disquieted the leadership of the armed forces, including the creation and expansion of the President's Own Guard Regiment. As a result, on February 24, 1966, a small number of army officers and senior police officials, led by Colonel Emmanuel Kotoka, commander of the Second Army Brigade at Kumasi, Major Akwasi Afrifa, staff officer in charge of army training and operations, Lieutenant General (retired) Joseph Ankrah, and J.W.K. Harlley, the police inspector general, successfully launched a coup d'état against the Nkrumah regime.[2] The group formed the National Liberation Council, which was to rule Ghana from 1966 to 1969.
The second coup took place in 1972, after the reinstated civilian government had cut military priveleges and began to start changing the leadership of the army's combat units. Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, temporarily commanding the First Brigade around Accra, led a bloodless coup that ended the Second Republic in January 1972.[3] Thus the National Redemption Council was formed. Acheampong became head of state, and the NRC ruled from 1972 to 1975.
On October 9, 1975, the NRC was replaced by the Supreme Military Council.[4] Its composition consisted of Colonel Acheampong, the chairman, who was also promoted straight from Colonel to General. The others included the military hierarchy consisting of Lt. Gen. Fred Akuffo, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the army, navy, air force and Border Guards commanders respectively.
In July 1978, in a sudden move, the other SMC officers forced Acheampong to resign, replacing him with Lieutenant General Akuffo. The SMC apparently acted in response to continuing pressure to find a solution to the country's economic dilemma. Inflation was estimated to be as high as 300 percent that year. The council was also motivated by Acheampong's failure to dampen rising political pressure for changes. Akuffo, the new SMC chairman, promised publicly to hand over political power to a new government to be elected by 1 July 1979.[5] The decree lifting the ban on party politics went into effect on 1 January 1979, as planned. However in June, just before the scheduled resumption of civilian rule, a group of young armed forces officers, led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, mounted yet another coup. They put in place the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which ruled until September 1979. However, in 1981, Rawlings deposed the new civilian government again, this time establishing the Provisional National Defence Council. The PNDC remained in power until January 7, 1993. In the last years of the PNDC, Jerry Rawlings assumed civilian status; he was elected as a civilian President in 1993 and continued in power until 2001.
The Ghana Army is structured as follows:
The Ghanaian Army relies on a mix of modern military technology and older varieties. While modern M16s and equipment are standard issue, much of the secondary equipment used by the Ghanaian military is generally older than that used in Western military forces, and Ghanaian troops frequently rely on British, Brazilian, Swiss, Swedish, Israeli, and Finnish weaponry.
The Ghanaian military is recognised as one of the most professional and up-to-date armed forces in West Africa, and as Ghana itself is a peaceful nation, enjoying stable relations with its neighbours in West Africa, Ghana is free to commit a large proportion of its armed forces to international peacekeeping operations. Such operations are mainly conducted in Africa, while large Ghanaian forces are frequently posted across the world as elements of United Nations peacekeeping forces. The United Nations has often relied on Ghanaian forces to conduct peacekeeping operations, in countries as diverse as Rwanda, Kosovo, and Lebanon. Currently, Ghanaian forces are posted to United Nations peacekeeping missions as follows:
The Ghana Air Force is headquartered in Burma camp Accra, and operates from bases in Accra (main transport base), Tamale (combat and training base), Takoradi (training base), and Kumasi (support base). The Air Force's stated mission is to perform counterinsurgency operations within Ghana and to provide logistical support to the army. Like the army, the air force suffers from frequent shortages of spare parts and poor maintenance of equipment. The Ghanian air force has the following but not limited to aircrafts:
The Ghana Air Force was interested in ordering 4 C-27J Spartans. They changed mid-purchase and ordered 2 EADS CASA C-295 aircrafts.
The Ghana Navy provides defence of Ghana and its territorial waters, fishery protection, and internal security on Lake Volta. It is also tasked with resupplying Ghanian peacekeepers in West Africa, fighting maritime criminal activities such as Piracy, disaster and humanitarian relief operations, and evacuation of Ghanian citizens and other nationals from troubled spots. In 1994 the navy was re-organized into an Eastern command, with headquarters at Tema, and a Western command, with headquarters at Sekondi-Takoradi.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, due to financial constraints and a lack of serviceable equipment, the navy temporarily shrank from about 1,200 personnel to around 850, but the numbers soon rose. By 2010, the navy had over 2000 personnel.
Paramilitary forces deal with preventing and controlling civil disturbances and insurrection. Ghanaian statutory law officially prohibits civilians and foreign nationals from wearing military apparel such as camouflage clothing, or clothing which resembles military dress. Officially, fines and/or short prison sentences can be passed against civilians seen in military dress in public. However, this regulation is not enforced, and Ghanaian civilians are able to wear military-style apparel (such as civilian clothes in a camouflage finish) without any difficulties from law enforcement. In addition, Ghanaian law prohibits the photographing of police or military personnel and vehicles while on duty, strategic sites such as Kotoka International Airport when in use, and the seat of the Ghanaian government, Osu Castle.
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