By Abebe Dawuni
Yendi, Dec 20, GNA-The Yendi Peace Centre of the Catholic Church in Yendi has organized peace interaction workshop for youth groups in Yendi in the Northern Region.
It also involved traditional authorities, women groups, Dagbon Youth Association, Concern citizens and the media.
A similar workshop would also be organized at Saboba in the Northern Region.
The workshops aimed at exploring strategies to bridge divides, foster understanding and collectively work towards a thriving and inclusive community.
Reverend (Rev) Fr Michael Cobb (PhD), Executive Director of Yendi Peace Centre speaking on the purpose said they believed the interaction would provide valuable insight and practical solutions that benefit all parties and contribute to sustainable peace in Yendi and beyond.
Rev. Fr. Cobb added that in the recent times, there had been rumours of some Konkombas leaving Yendi town, while some Dagombas were also leaving Konkomba communities.
He reminded them that the ethnic violence conflict which happened in 1994 in Yendi and beyond brought about a lot of destruction and deaths and urged war mongers to stop propagating falsehood.
He said a lot of lives were lost in the 1994 ethnic conflict and nobody would like to witness that again.
He said after the installation of Ya-Na Abukari II the Overlord of Dagbon there had been peace and the government had spent a lot of money during the installation to bring peace to Yendi and Dagbon as a whole.
He urged the leaderships of both ethnic groups to educate their people against any conflict.
Imam Salifu Mahammadu Habibu of Dagbon State Senior High Technical School speaking on breaking ethnic division in Yendi and beyond; the role of Dagomba Youth said as Muslims they should share the word of peace with others.
He said ethnic division was a problem and hoped other ethnic groups would also attend the interaction workshops.
Rev Fr. Gregory Dery speaking on breaking the divide: Addressing ethnic-centred communications said the more you suppress people, it will not bring peace but it should be through dialogue.
He reminded them that ethnicity with sentiments would not help them unless they fostered to live together without preaching violence and advised them to focus in building the youth who were idle and taking hard drugs.
In his remarks Rev. Bishop Matthew Yitiereh, the Bishop of Yendi Diocese reminded them the efforts they made to have the December 7, 2024 peaceful elections in the area, was commendable.
He said as a Catholic Church they were talking about the second coming of Christ, which was spiritual coming and after the workshop they should break the divide by aiming at the ethnic groups.
He urged them to let God use them to bring peace to Dagbon as it was the pride of Dagombas and advised them not to get tired in promoting peace despite the fact that it was expensive and tiresome.
GNA