FROM WITNESSES TO GUARDIANS: CHILDREN AT THE HEART OF GHANA’S PEACE AND SECURITY

When orders came to withdraw from Rwanda in 1994, Ghana’s battalion stayed. Today, that same courage anchors a practical, African-led effort to keep children safe from armed violence.

From Witnesses to Guardians: Children at the Heart of Ghana’s Peace and Security

Ghana is often described as the heart of peace in West Africa. Its democratic tradition and long record in United Nations peacekeeping have made it a model of stability. Yet even here, children remain on the front lines of vulnerability.

Across the country, a significant share of children aged 5–17 are engaged in child labour, facing risks of exploitation, trafficking, and violence. In Ghana’s northern border regions, instability spilling over from Burkina Faso—where armed groups have continued to recruit and use children—has heightened the risk that children will be drawn into cycles of conflict.

The Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security has been tracking these risks through its Early Warning to Early Action model, which identifies countries that have early warning signs that can lead to recruitment and use of children. In 2023, Ghana was flagged in our model as a place where early prevention could make a decisive difference—and, crucially, where the government and security leadership had the will to act. That opening, rooted in a bond that goes back three decades, set the stage for the partnership and trainings that follow.

A bond forged in history

The connection between the Dallaire Institute and Ghana goes back three decades. In 1994, when genocide tore through Rwanda, a Ghanaian battalion of roughly 450 peacekeepers deployed to the United Nations mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) under Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire. The battalion was led by then-Brigadier-General Henry Anyidoho, who also served as UNAMIR’s deputy force commander. When orders came to withdraw, the entire Ghanaian battalion refused, remaining to help protect more than 30,000 civilians; three Ghanaian soldiers lost their lives in the effort. That legacy of courage and conscience laid the foundation for a partnership built on prevention.

Then–UNAMIR Deputy Force Commander Brigadier-General Henry Anyidoho (now Major-General, Ret’d) with Force Commander Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire (Ret’d)

Among those who served was Brigadier-General Parbey, now Commander of the Army Training Command. He recalled a five-year-old boy “holding a bloodied hacksaw” and said that even after 31 years “this memory is seared into his memory.” It is for this reason, he explained, that he “understands and is committed to a world where children are at the heart of peace and security.”

Changing practice on the ground

In 2024, the Dallaire Institute and the Ghana Armed Forces signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on preventing the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict. Since then, the Dallaire Institute has trained 72 military and police trainers and prepared 101 personnel for deployment to United Nations missions in South Sudan, Lebanon, and other regions.

Major General (Ret’d) William Omane Agyekum, former senior commander of the Ghana Armed Forces and now the Dallaire Institute’s Country Representative, has seen the change:

“The Dallaire Institute has fed our soldiers and police personnel with knowledge on the prevention of the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict and violence and has improved greatly how our personnel will relate to all children… The scenario-based training offered by the Dallaire Institute has given advanced training that makes our personnel improve their effectiveness and become champions of children.”

What Major General Agyekum is describing is the shift in behaviour and awareness our training builds: it equips personnel to move beyond a “threat-only” lens—so that even when a child is armed or appears to be acting as a combatant, they are also recognized as a victim of unlawful recruitment and exploitation and must be approached with child-protection principles.

Training courses in northern Ghana have shown how deeply this knowledge is needed. A Ghana Armed Forces major reflected that before the course “the way [we] were conducting [our] operations was having many gaps… Previously [we] had never received briefings about encounters with children, many had a poor attitude… treated them harshly, and this resulted in lack of any reporting on abuses to children.” He added that “these attitudes would be much different now.”

Because child recruitment is complex, our training is practical and multi-sector, adapted to each country’s realities. In Ghana, Immigration Service officers are often first to meet children and families crossing from conflict-affected Burkina Faso. One such participant described how children fleeing attacks had at times been returned across the border “without even taking into consideration their security and the risk of being killed when returning to their villages.” He concluded that “the training is not only relevant to the situation the security forces are dealing with in northern Ghana but critical.”

All trainers are African—both Ghanaian instructors and alumni of our train-the-trainer courses in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and the DRC, alongside the Dallaire Institute’s own Africa-based staff. This Africa-to-Africa model anchors every session in regional experience and shared practice. Ghanaian battalions now serving in South Sudan are applying the same approach in coordination with our team in Juba.

Continuing the peacekeeper’s legacy

In September 2025, Major Willem Dallaire—son of Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire—joined the Dallaire Institute’s mission to Ghana. He had grown up with his father’s accounts of the Ghanaian peacekeepers who refused to withdraw during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and stood beside him to protect civilians; in Accra, he met several of those officers in person. During the visit he also met Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings—physician, Member of Parliament, and daughter of Ghana’s late President Jerry Rawlings, who led the country at the time of the Rwanda mission—linking two next-generation leaders whose family histories are bound by a commitment to place children at the centre of security. Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings recently joined the Dallaire Institute’s International Advisory Council—whose role is to provide strategic advice, convening power, and advocacy that turn our child-centred security agenda into policy and practice—and she gladly accepted.

What began as a bond between two commanders three decades ago has grown into a continental movement for prevention. Ghana’s soldiers, once witnesses to tragedy, are now teachers of peace. From Tamale to Accra, from training grounds to United Nations deployments abroad, Ghana is helping prove that when children are placed at the heart of peace and security, nations become stronger—and the future becomes safer for all.

Major Willem Dallaire (left) and Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings (right)

This work in Ghana is made possible through generous support from Global Affairs Canada and is part of a larger effort to promote the implementation of the Vancouver Principles across sub-Saharan Africa.