IMANI Africa’s Honorary Vice President, Bright Simons, has questioned the Ghana Armed Forces’ preparedness for rescue missions in difficult forest terrain following last Wednesday’s tragic military helicopter crash in the Adansi Akrofuom district.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Monday, August 12, Simons stressed that global standards exist for such operations, and Ghana must adhere to them.
“You have to start by saying, what are the rules that are established globally in this country? And I’m saying that for a search and rescue operation, there are response times. There are designated first respondents.
“There are rules around trying to make sure you have site containment. There are rules around trying to preserve evidence, preventing unauthorised access. These are all rules that we all saw on TV that were not met.”
Authorities have cited the challenging forest terrain as a factor in the delayed response, but Simons dismissed this as an acceptable excuse.
“Now, the argument is that the terrain was difficult. My response to that is that, of course, the terrain was difficult. Some of the training that the Armed Forces received, or members of the Armed Forces received, is specifically in difficult terrain, because we know, for instance, that in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, in Benin and some of these countries, we’ve seen that bad actors tend to use a masking to prevent easy response.”
He pointed to regional examples, noting that forest operations are not unusual for militaries in West Africa.
“So in Nigeria, the case with a famous Sambisa forest matter, that is where they were hiding in the forest, if you don’t train your soldiers so they can go into the forest and respond to a situation, then how are you going to do that?”
Simons insisted that forest conditions should not have hindered a swift rescue if the Armed Forces were fully trained for such operations.
“So when we say that, you know, because the place was a forest area, but I beg to differ, I think that we have soldiers that, if that situation was an insurgency, for instance, we would expect that they respond quicker.”
His remarks come as President John Mahama has announced the establishment of a high-level Investigative Board of Inquiry to determine the cause of the crash.
He assured Ghanaians in a nationwide address that the Ghana Armed Forces would lead a “full and transparent investigation” into the tragedy.
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