President, military bid farewell to late Gen. Vib-Sanziri
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Friday joined thousands of mourners in a solemn ceremony to bid farewell to the fallen Ghanaian soldier Major General Francis Vib-Sanziri.
The distinguished military officer, with a professional career spanning 34 years in the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), died last April in Israel. He was until his demise the Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
The funeral ceremony, steeped in the traditional military honours reserved for Generals, held at the St. Catherine Catholic Church at Burma Camp in Accra, was attended also by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, United Nation representatives, Ministers, Service Chiefs and Commanders, senior government officials, the military community and people from all of life’s walk.
Troops, in accordance with military tradition, received the remains of late Gen. Vib-Sanziri, in a casket draped in the National flag, followed by a solemn filling past by the family and friends of the bereaved, the top brass of the GAF, senior officers, the clergy, civilian employees of the Defence ministry, as well as sympathizers.
Tributes were read by his family, children, wife, his intake mates, the UN, the UNDOF and the GAF. And after committal prayers, his remains was ferried on a gun carriage to the new military cemetery at Burma Camp, for interment.
Troops lined the streets leading to the cemetery, saluting and presenting arms as the casket drove by to its final resting place.
Maj. Gen. Vib-Sanziri was born on Tuesday September 17, 1957 in Nandom in the then Upper Region.
Since joining the GAF in 1985, Maj. Gen. Vib-Sanziri had a distinguished military career at national and international levels.
He served as Director-General of the International Peace Support Operations at the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces since April 2017, and also as an Assistant Director, Ghana Army Operations (1996-1998), Deputy Head of the Ghana Military Academy (2002-2004), Commanding Officer of an Infantry Battalion (2004-2009), Director for International Peacekeeping Support Operations in 2009 and Army Secretary at the Army Headquarters (2010-2011).
In 2014, he was appointed Director-General for Joint Operations, General Headquarters. He served as Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organization from 2015 to 2017.
Major General Vib-Sanziri’s extensive peacekeeping experience includes deployments to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 1988 and 1991, United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) in 1993 and 1994 and the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in 2007.
He also served with the Economic Community of West Africa States Monitoring Group in Liberia in 1990, in Sierra Leone, in 1999 and 2000, and, subsequently, with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). From 2011 to 2014, he served as a strategic military planner in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the United Nations.
Major General Vib-Sanziri holds a master’s degree in military art and science from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, in the United States, a post-graduate certificate in public administration from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree in geography and rural resource development from the University of Ghana.
He was a graduate of the Nigerian Armed Forces Command and General Staff College, Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College and the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
SOURCE: GHANA NEWS AGENCY