The Upper East Regional Peace Council has underscored the need for stakeholders, including traditional authorities, youth groups, women, and persons with disabilities, to intensify campaigns on the need for peace in their communities.
The Council, said peace was crucial for the development of every community, including ‘sustaining Ghana’s democratic gains over the years,’ and the stakeholders as peace mediators at the community level needed to initiate steps that would discourage violence in any form.
Alhaji Sumaila Issaka, the Upper East Regional chairman of the Peace Council, made these remarks when he addressed the stakeholders, drawn from Namoo, Feo, and Soe communities in the Bongo District during a two-day capacity-building workshop on conflict resolution in Bongo in the Upper East Region.
The workshop formed part of the project dubbed: ‘Enhancing Social Cohesion and Social Contract through Empowering Women and Youth in Northern Ghana,’ being implemented by the peace council at Bongo, Garu, and Bawku
West Districts of the Region.
It is being funded by the United Nations (UN) Peace Building Fund through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA).
Madam Magdalene Kannae, Board member, National Peace Council, emphasised that the project was aimed at addressing localised conflicts and challenges, including chieftaincy disputes, land conflicts, and political conflicts, among others, and the stakeholders must show some level of commitment for the continuous existence of peace.
Mr William Kumi, Assistant District Coordinating Director, Bongo, urged the stakeholders to use dialogue as a means of resolving their issues instead of resorting to violence, since such conduct could jeopardize the peace being enjoyed.
Madam Juliana Aniah, a participant, said the Peace Council had reposed confidence in her to help resolve conflicts in her community, having enhanced her capacity to detect early warning signs of conflict and respond to them promptly.
Naba Azaare Any
e-Naba, Chief of Feo, thanked the Peace Council and sponsors of the project in their quest to improve peace in the various communities for the improvement of their livelihoods.
‘But I want to also call on the politicians to be mindful of what they say in order not to truncate the peace we are enjoying and so also worsen our plight,’ he added.
Dr Selina Appiah Boateng, lecturer, Department of Peace Studies, University of Cape Coast, and co-facilitator of the workshop cautioned that in most cases, what one hears or sees in a conflict was a perspective or opinion and not the entire truth, and as peace mediators, they must be cautious in handling conflict cases.
Source: Ghana News Agency