From Left: Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, Vice President Dr Bawumia, President Akufo-Addo and Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul at the funeral service
The remains of the late Major General Francis Vib-Sanziri were laid to rest yesterday at the Military Cemetery behind the Accra International Trade Fair Centre.
This was after a well attended pre-burial mass was held in his memory at the St Catherine Catholic Church at Burma Camp in Accra officiated by Most Rev Joseph Afrifa Agyekum.
In attendance were President Akufo-Addo; Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia; former Presidents Jerry Rawlings and John Mahama; the Ministers of Defence and the Interior, Dominic Nitiwul and Ambrose Dery respectively; former and present service chiefs; and members of the military high command.
Also present were the Chief of the Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Obed Akwa; the Inspector-General of Police, David Asante-Apeatu; the United Nations representative in Ghana, Sylvia Lopez-Ekra; and some members of the diplomatic corps, including high-ranking officers of the Ghana Armed Forces.
The late Major General Francis Vib-Sanziri, who until his death was Force Commander and Head of Mission for United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), was at the Golan Heights in 1957.
Prior to that appointment, he was the Director General, Joint Operations at the General Headquarters, Burma Camp, Accra.
Before then, he was acting National Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), a position he held from 2015 to 2017.
Having begun his career in the military in August 1985, he served Ghana with distinction, including peace keeping stints with UN in Lebanon and Rwanda and ECOMOG in Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to his peers.
He also served as a Strategic Military Planner for peace keeping operations at the UN headquarters in New York, USA.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent