The Savannah Regional Peace Council has called on residents of Saru, Tagalayiri and Doobodarkoraa communities in the Sawla -Tuna-Kalba District of the Savannah Region to help the security services in the fight against violent extremism.
The Peace Council said the fight against violent extremism required a collective effort and urged community members as key stakeholders to collaborate with the security services to defeat the activities of the violent extremists for peaceful coexistence.
This was made known when the UNDP Ghana country office in collaboration with Savannah Regional Peace Council organised a 2-day workshop on alternative and counter-narrative messages to leverage the role of women and youth as peace agents and trusted messengers.
Speaking at the workshop, Miss Melody Azinim, Peace and Governance Analyst for UNDP-GHANA mentioned that the 2 day workshop which focus on prevention facility is a build up on their previous project known as preventing and responding to violence extremism.
“Empowering women and youth as peace agents is not just about inclusion, it’s about resilience.
In areas like Sawla-Tuna-Kalba and Tempane, their voices are critical in identifying early signs of conflict and building sustainable peace from the ground up, through this training, we are strengthening local capacities to resist violent extremist narratives and fostering a culture of proactive, community-led solutions” she said.
Miss Melody added that In the Northern part of Ghana, Sawla Tuna Kalba District (Saru, Tagalayiri and Dobodarikura), bordering Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, and Tempane Municipality (Kongo, Nagani, Tubong, Siguure, Worinyanga, Akara, Binpella, Sumaduri, Nisum), bordering Togo are vulnerable to the threats of violent extremism due to the spread of the activities of violent extremist groups and proximity to the borders, and the evolving ethnic, land, chieftaincy related conflict dynamics.
She noted that a regional baseline study conducted by (UNDP) further indicated lack of awareness and limited involvement of women and youth in community-level Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) Mechanisms, exacerbating their vulnerabilities to these threats of violent extremism.
Speaking to Yagbon News after the 2 day workshop, Mr. Kennedy Atiibo, the Regional Executive Secretary for the Savannah Regional Peace Council, mentioned that the program is mainly for the youth and women in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District, specifically dealing with boarder Communities that is Burkina- Faso and Cote dI’ voire.
Mr. Kennedy added that the reason why they are targeting the youth and women in the border communities is that their role as far as peace building is concerned.
‘So this project we are currently doing is to build their capacity let them know the conflict situations within their communities and how that has a link with the possibility of the Violence Extremist coming into their communities” he said.
The Executive Secretary of the Savannah Regional Peace Council noted that the capacity building will help them to be able to appreciate the implications of internal divisions and how that can be exploited by the Extremist.
UNDP in collaboration with the Regional Peace Councils in Savannah Region and Upper East regions, with funding support from Denmark, Luxembourg and Republic of Korea is implementing the Preventive Approach to Protecting Development in the Gulf of Guinea (Prevention Facility) project in Sawla-Tuna-Kalba and Tempane Municipalities to enhance EWER, socio-economic resilience of at-risk communities in target locations, build sustainable peace and to prevent community conflicts and violent extremism in border and cross-border areas.
Source:Diwura Fataw
