Retired Lieutenant General Daniel Opande, former Commander of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), recently paid a courtesy visit to the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Liberia, Brigadier General Davidson Fayiah Forleh at his Barclay Training Center office in Monrovia.
According to an AFL release dated Friday, October 11, 2024, the AFL Chief showered praises on Opande for his many contributions to the peace that Liberia now enjoys, saying the Armed Forces of Liberia and the people of Liberia have created a special space in their hearts for him based on his role in the restoration of peace in Liberia.
Gen. Opande served as Force Commander for the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) from 2003 to 2005. Using his tough but diplomatic skills, the Kenyan’s Defense Forces officer succeeded in getting the commanders of all Liberia’s warring factions to agree to the disarming of more than 100,000 former combatants in 2004.
Under his leadership, UNMIL provided security, technical and logistical support for the electoral processes that culminated into the peaceful democratic elections in Liberia in 2005. Prior to serving as UNMIL’s Force Commander, Gen. Opande served as Chief Military Observer of the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) from 1993 to 1995.
Before returning to Liberia in 2003 as UNMIL Force Commander, General Daniel Opande served with distinction as Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).
During his military career, he represented Kenya in the Mozambican Peace Process as a facilitator and negotiator between the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) and the Government of Mozambique from 1990 to 1993. General Opande further served as Deputy Force Commander with the United Nations Transitional Assistance Group in Namibia (UNTAG) from 1989 to 1990.
He arrived in Liberia on 1st October 2003 from Sierra Leone. At that time, Sierra Leone had established a UN peacekeeping mission and the situation in Sierra Leone had returned to normal. There was a functioning government and peace had been restored throughout the country. But the situation in Liberia during that period was the opposite.
At that time, nothing in the country was functioning, the government had collapsed, there was no effective security arrangement and the entire country was in turmoil and in grave danger of falling apart. The people in Liberia were moving from place to place looking for safety and food while others were dying as a result of the devastating effect of the war, then came in the General.
Born on 18 August 1943, Lieutenant-General Opande is a graduate of the British Army Cadet School (Sandhurst), where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1964. He has served as Commandant of the National Defense College, Kenya’s highest military institution. General Opande is also a graduate of the British Army Staff College and the United States National Defense University.
Lieutenant General Daniel Opande is not only a Kenyan hero but a military officer honored in Africa as well. Gen. Opande served in the Kenyan Military for close to half a century. His unparalleled bravery, courage and resonance towards the restoration of peace in Liberia, Africa and the world are highly commendable, and the people of Liberia will forever remain grateful to him and the people of Kenya.
