A Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management student, pulled from his business studies by the United Nations to help manage peacekeeping missions in Africa, is returning to Owen to give his personal insight on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Ebenezer Aryee took a leave from Owen in 2005, to work on the peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone. Aryee is now the contracts management officer with the U.N. Mission in Sudan and manages the U.N.’s $400 million oil and food contract and related operations there.
Throughout the 1990s, Aryee served as a Ghanaian military officer and operations specialist and was assigned to U.N. peacekeeping efforts in many of Africa’s major crisis regions, including Liberia, the Congo and Rwanda.
During the 1994 uprising and widespread massacre in Rwanda, all nations serving the U.N. were ordered out of the country, events which were portrayed in the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda.” Only one nation, Ghana, chose to stay to protect innocent civilians. In one incident, Aryee and the 102 troops he commanded commandeered a soccer stadium to protect the innocent civilians under attack by Hutu extremists. Aryee and his fellow peacekeepers are credited with saving the lives of more than 30,000 Rwandans during that time.
Aryee will talk about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur on Monday, Sept. 24, at 1 p.m. in Averbuch Auditorium at Owen. The event is free and open to the public.
Media Contact: Amy Wolf, (615) 322-NEWS
Amy.wolf@vanderbilt.edu