Ghana calls on Commonwealth to condemn attack on its peacekeepers in Lebanon

Ghana has called on the Commonwealth to condemn Friday’s missile attack on its United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon which injured four of its soldiers.

Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa did not say who was responsible when speaking at a Commonwealth meeting on Sunday but said the bombing was “an attack on every principle that the UN Charter exists to defend”.

Israel has been striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, after the Iranian-backed Shia group said it launched rockets and drones at the Israeli city of Haifa last week to avenge the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

All the injured Ghanaian soldiers are now in a stable condition, its army has said.

Three had minor injuries and the one who was critically injured had “successfully undergone surgery and [was] responding to treatment”, it added in a statement.

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“We urge the Commonwealth to roundly condemn this attack and demand immediate investigations,” Ablakwa said when addressing his Commonwealth counterparts at a gathering in London on Sunday.

The Ghanaian soldiers were serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) when their base was hit Friday shortly before 18:00 local time (16:00 GMT).

Social media was awash with videos showing significant damage and fire burning battalion facilities accommodating Ghana’s peacekeeping troops.

Ghana’s foreign ministry has also formally lodged a protest with UN Secretary-General António Guterres over the attack.

Guterres has said that “those responsible must be held accountable”.

Ghana is one of the long-standing troop-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping operations in Lebanon, where its soldiers serve as part of a multinational task force.