The national catholic secretariat of the catholic bishops’ conference through the Sahel peace initiative has engaged stakeholders in the upper west region to raise awareness of violent conflicts.
The one-day dialogue seeks to bring together relevant stakeholders to raise awareness about the phenomenon and also proffer appropriate solutions to any possible terrorist attacks throughout the region.
The regional dialogue session on trending conflict issues is one of several activities being implemented under the Sahel peace initiative in Ghana as the country is faced with the imminent risk of violent extremism.
The risk of violent extremist attacks spilling over from neighbouring countries is, therefore, high with parts of the country currently experiencing localized communal, chieftaincy, land and intra-religious conflicts.
The possibility of these conflicts potentially being exploited by violent extremists is very high.
To end this, the national catholic secretariat of the Ghana catholic bishops’ conference with funding support from the catholic relief services, crs, is leading an effort, the Sahel peace initiative, to raise awareness about these violent conflicts and to seek remedy.
Participants were drawn from policymakers and implementers, academia, religious leaders, traditional leaders, youth group leaders, political parties, women group leaders, csos, the justice and peace commission and individuals.
The upper west regional minister dr hafiz bin salih in a speech read on his behalf by the deputy director at the regional coordinating council, Denis Bayuo, said the region is plagued with numerous chieftaincy and land disputes as well as pockets of inter and intra religious conflicts
The event was under the theme: trending conflicts in Ghana, fertile grounds for violent extremism; a call for action.
By Peter Quao Adattor
