Ending armed conflict in NW, SW: Organisation trains, equips 50 youth to engage peaceful community initiatives.

The training is part of efforts to end the over seven-year long separatist armed conflict in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

The young people underwent an eighth-month training dubbed Youth Engagement in Community Peace Initiative, YECPI, and advocacy for an end to the Anglophone crisis.

Having concluded their training, the youth were handed certificates during a ceremony organised in Bamenda on Friday June 14.

Speaking during the event, the President of RADA, Mbidzenyuy Ferdinand Sonyuy, said: “For this particular initiative, we had the opportunity to train 50 youths on community peace building specifically on conflict resolution, advocacy and effective communication”.

He went on to add that: “With these skills, we expect these youths to be positive contributors and advocates for an end to Anglophone crisis -the real problem that we want to solve”.

The event which also had in attendance, representatives from the North West Regional Assembly and the Public Independent Conciliator, equally witnessed the presentation of the results of a survey on the youth perception of the Anglophone crisis.

The survey was carried out as part of the training program, with a majority of the young people indicating that the root causes of the problem are political. 

“That tells us that the solution lays within the political ranks,” the President of RADA said.

According to the results of the survey presented by Dr Courage Sevidzem, “70% of the youths surveyed said their voices are not being heard when it comes to the role that they should play in the resolution of this conflict”.

Advocating for the youths to be seen as a solution not a problem, Sonyuy said: “Youths are very important in society. If you ignore their opinion, you are ignoring the future,” Dr Courage said.

The results of the survey revealed that youths are willing to contribute in ending the conflict, but they lack three main basic skills which include Advocacy, Conflict resolution and Effective communication.

The representative of the trainees, Wapyem Gravelen, said: “During my stay in the training, I acquired the skills of advocacy to create positive change”.

He explained that: “I have noticed that in our communities, we see different things happening but we don’t know the proper way of mitigating them. We were thought on how to advocate for positive change and things that can help”.

“We were also taught on conflict resolution and mediation taking into context that we are in a conflict situation in our region,” Wapyem averred. 

The young people recommended that for a solution be gotten for the Anglophone crisis turned armed conflict, “a stop to the military option and honest and sincere talks should be prioritised”.

The project is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, NED. With the skills gained from the training, the young people have been tasked to champion peace initiatives in their various communities to become peace and change agents.

The story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No: 3145 of Friday June 21, 2024