Kundugu, (U/W), April 3, GNA – The Upper West Regional Peace Council has formed a seven-member peace committee at Kundugu in the Wa East District to help promote peaceful co-existence in the community.
The committee is expected to serve as a liaison between the community and the Regional Peace Council as well as the security services in the district.
They will also, among other things, promote peace in the community, help in addressing misunderstanding among the people, and identify early warning signs that could potentially degenerate into conflict situations and report them to the Regional Peace Council or the security services for immediate intervention.
The peace committee was formed during a three-day community sensitization programme on the Atlantic Corridor Project dubbed, “Promoting Community Dialogues and Community Peace Committees to Strengthen Social Cohesion and Reduce Vulnerabilities to Violent Extremism.”
The project is being sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and implemented by the National Peace Council.
Professor Samuel Marfo, a Professor of Peace and Conflict Resolution at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), noted that conflicts whether chieftaincy, religious, political, or ethnic had brought serious pains to people globally.
“If peace is missing in your life, you will appreciate the value of peace,” he stated and pointed out that the ultimate goal for the engagement was to ensure that participants of the programme would become peace ambassadors promoting peaceful co-existence amongst indigenes and minority tribes in the community.
Prof. Marfo, who is also a member of the Upper West Regional Peace Council, noted that people living in communities needed to understand that they would be dependent on each other despite their diversity, hence the need to live together in peace and harmony and not become enemies to one another.
He said to be able to achieve peace in the community, there was the need for all to make a lot of sacrifices.
Dr. Suleman Ewura Mahama Kandia, the Wa East District Chief Executive (DCE), in a speech delivered on his behalf, noted that “If you are poor and you have peace, you have everything.
“I have absolute faith in the Peace Council and its partners in promoting social cohesion in the district,” he stated.
Mr Musah Gibiliru, a member of the Fulbey community, thanked the Peace Council and its partners for bringing them together and sensitizing them on social cohesion, saying it would go a long way to promote peaceful co-existence in the community.
According to him, many of the misunderstanding amongst people in the community was due to the absence of dialogue and expressed the hope that going forward they would employ dialogue effectively in resolving grievances in the community.
GNA