By Alpha Abu
Twenty designated Peace Mediators from communities in Freetown Urban and Rural are being trained on Conflict Resolution by facilitators from the Ghana-based Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).
The two-day event which ends today is organised by Sierra Leone’s Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion (ICPNC) as part of efforts to diffuse tensions in some communities before, during and after the 24 June polls.
Two facilitators Agnes Agberadi –Acting Programme Head, and Senior Researcher Mustapha Abdallah both from the Kofi Annan centre led the trainees on the essentials of conflict and its analysis, with a focus on the triggers, nature and causes, and conducted stakeholder mapping.
The participants learned about the main ‘ingredients’ of conflict such as perceptions, values, feelings and desires, its direct and indirect actors.
Peace Commission’s Executive Secretary Hawai Samai before the start of the training encouraged the trainees to intervene in their communities in situations of conflict and not to escalate matters.
She advised them in their mediation efforts to thoroughly investigate in real time and that if a matter is security related, to immediately ask for security sector intervention, notifying first personnel of the Office of National Security that they will be working with, in their communities.
She said they will be forming Whatsapp Groups and must provide pictorial evidence for cases under investigation.
The executive secretary said the peace mediators are to sign an Oath of Confidentiality which she trusts they will not breach, so as not to damage their credibility and sincerity of purpose.
She encouraged the mediators to commit themselves to calm things down in their areas, which the commission is expecting them to do.
She told them to be united and not to be partisan in their decisions despite their different political affiliations.
She said the composition of the mediators –representatives of the Inter-Religious Council, Local Chiefs, Women’s Groups and Civil Society, will form the nucleus of a model that will stay beyond the elections, to address conflicts in communities.
The Kofi Annan centre has trained over 23,000 people in some 90 countries in Africa, Asia and North America on conflict, peace and mediation.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (26/05/23)
