In 1879, the
Gold Coast Constabulary was established by personnel of the Hausa Constabulary of Southern Nigeria, to perform internal security and police duties in the British colony of the
Gold Coast. In this guise, the regiment earned its first battle honour as part of the Ashanti campaign. of the
Ghana Regiment during the
Burma Campaign in the
South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. The Gold Coast Constabulary was renamed in 1901 as the Gold Coast Regiment, following the foundation of the
West African Frontier Force, under the direction of the
Colonial Office of the
British Government. The regiment raised a total of five
battalions for service during the
First World War, all of which served during the East Africa campaign. During the
Second World War, the regiment raised nine battalions, and saw action in Kenya's Northern Frontier District, Italian Somaliland,
Abyssinia and
Burma as part of the
2nd (West Africa) Infantry Brigade. Gold Coast soldiers returning from the Far East carried different perspectives from when they had departed.
Internal operations The Ghana Armed Forces were formed in 1957. Major General
Stephen Otu was appointed Chief of Defence Staff in September 1961. From 1966, the Armed Forces were extensively involved in politics, mounting several coups.
Kwame Nkrumah had become Ghana's first
prime minister when the country became independent in 1957. As 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 (POGR). As a result, on February 24, 1966, a small number of Army personnel and senior police officials, led by Colonel
Emmanuel Kotoka, commander of the Second 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 "Operation Cold Chop", the
1966 Ghanaian coup d'état, against the Nkrumah regime. 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 (SMC). Council members were Colonel Acheampong, (chairman, who was also promoted straight from
Colonel to
General), Lt. Gen.
Fred Akuffo, (the
Chief of Defence Staff), and the army, navy, air force and
Border Guard Unit commanders. In July 1978, in a sudden move, the other SMC officers forced Acheampong to resign, replacing him with Lt. Gen. 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% 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 July 1, 1979. The decree lifting the ban on party politics went into effect on January 1, 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 the
1979 Ghanaian coup d'état. They put in place the
Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which governed until September 1979. However, in 1981, Rawlings deposed the new civilian government again, in the
1981 Ghanaian coup d'état. This time Rawlings established the
Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). The PNDC remained in government 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 as president until 2001. File:Ghana Armed Forces – Military Sergeant Soldier.jpg|A female
sergeant from the Ghana Army on a
military exercise. File:Ghanain Army 2005-095.jpg|Ghana Army
soldiers during a simulated
amphibious landing in Southwest Ghana. File:USMC-110309-M-DF801-045.jpg|Posed photograph from a U.S. Marine Corps -Ghana
jungle warfare training exercise. File:Members of the Ghana Army 2nd Engineer Battalion prepare to practice riot control techniques during a nonlethal training demonstration June 26, 2013, in Accra, Ghana, as part of exercise Western Accord 2013 130626-A-ZZ999-023.jpg|2nd Engineer Battalion
Snatch Squad engaged in
flying wedge and
riot control. File:Members of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center honor guard stand in formation during a welcoming ceremony for Ivory Coast Gen. Soumaila Bakayoko, the Economic Community of West African 130626-A-ZZ999-016.jpg|
Honour guards from Ghana Air Force during a welcoming ceremony for Ivory Coast Gen.
Soumaila Bakayoko, the ECOWAS chair of chiefs of defence staff, during Exercise Western Accord 13.
External operations soldiers boarding a
Lockheed C-130 Hercules at
Accra International Airport to take part in an
Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group mission in
Liberia. The Armed Forces' first external operation was the
United Nations Operation in the Congo in the early 1960s. The GAF operated in the
Balkans, including with
UNMIK. Ghanaian operations within
Africa included the
UNAMIR deployment which became entangled in the
Rwandan genocide. In his book
Shake Hands with the Devil,
Canadian Forces commander
Romeo Dallaire gave the Ghanaian soldiers high praise for their work during that deployment. During the
Liberian Civil War, Ghanaian activities helped pave the way for the
Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement, among others. Additional operations in Asia have included Iran and Iraq in the
Iran–Iraq War,
Kuwait and
Lebanon civil war among others. A total of 3,359 Ghana Army soldiers and 283 Ghana Military Police operated as part of UNTAC in
Cambodia. In 2012, closer military cooperation was agreed with the
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2013, the Armed Forces agreed closer military cooperation with the China
People's Liberation Army, and with the
Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. ==Ghana Army==