The Upper East Regional Peace Council has organised capacity enhancement training for stakeholders, including opinion leaders, youth groups, women, and other minority groups, on conflict resolution in the Garu District of the Region.
The stakeholders, drawn from three communities, namely, Kugri, Siisi, and Denugu, were equipped with causes of conflict and how they could detect early warning signs of conflict and respond early to local conflicts while enabling them to institute a community-based conflict management mechanism.
It aimed at addressing localised conflicts and challenges, including chieftaincy disputes, farmer herder conflicts, land conflicts, and political conflicts, among others, that threaten Ghana’s peace and stability, particularly in the Upper East, North East, and Upper West Regions.
The two-day capacity-building workshop for the stakeholders formed part of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) sponsored project dubbed “Enhancing Social Cohesion and Social Contract through Empowering Women and Youth in Northern Ghana.”
Mr Ali Anankpieng, Executive Secretary of the Upper East Regional Peace Council, said in his welcome address that peace was vital for the development of every community, and the stakeholders were major factors in ensuring peace in their communities.
He emphasised that the Peace Council, as an implementer of the peacebuilding project by the UNDP, was committed to enhancing the capacity of stakeholders for the maintenance of peace and called on them to be mediators of peace.
Madam Magdalene Kannae, Board member, National Peace Council, indicated the need to champion peace in the various communities and the country at large became necessary given the period the country had found itself in.
She noted that though Ghana had had several elections, the 2024 general election was very crucial and special in nature, given the peculiar interest by the two major political parties in the country coupled with the Sahel crisis and other internal conflicting issues within communities.
That, she observed, demanded that the stakeholders and the public avoided hate speeches and comments that had the tendency to incite violence.
She bemoaned that Ghana had lost its enviable position as the most peaceful country within the West-African sub region to Sierra Leon and dropped from being the second most peaceful country in Africa to the fourth position, according to the Global Peace Index 2022 report, stressing that it was a wakeup call to all stakeholders to commit to the campaign in promoting peace.
Mr Edward Ndebugre, Assemblyman, Kugri Natenga electoral area, said the workshop was insightful as it had offered him and other participants from his area insights on how they could resolve minor conflicts, particularly between them and the fulbes, which had existed for some time now.
“We have been doing our part, but with the strategies and the skills given to us, I am sure we are going to improve on our peaceful coexistence with the Fulbes, the minority group, and even within ourselves.”
Mr Iddrisu Amadu, a fulbe, said the workshop had given him and his colleagues’ in-depth knowledge on how they could resolve their internal issues and co-exist with others, adding, “We are grateful for the opportunity, and we look forward to co-existing peacefully.”
Dr Sabina Appiah Boateng, a lecturer at the Department of Peace Studies of the University of Cape Coast and co-facilitator of the workshop, urged the stakeholders to be cautious on how they handled issues of conflict between groups in order not to escalate it.
GNA