30 peace monitors trained in north to report potential threats

Participants after the workshop

The National Peace Council (NPC) in partnership with the Catholic Relief Service has trained 30 peace monitors in the northern part of the country on early warning and early response systems.

Drawn from the Upper East, Upper West, Savannah, North East and the Northern Regions, the event was to improve their reporting of potential threat of violent extremism and conflict before, during and after 2024 elections.

The two-day training held at Tamale was funded by the government and the government of Netherlands.

The Deputy Director in charge of Conflict Management and Resolution at the NPC, Mr Frank Bodza, urged the monitors to give the council critical timely information for prompt action to be taken.

He said Ghana, over the last 30 years, had remained relatively peaceful and democratically stable amid turbulent in West African region.

He said the relative peace had received global recognition and rankings in the 2022 Global Peace Index (GPI) reports which ranked Ghana as the most peaceful country in West Africa and 40th in the world.

This, according to him, was an improvement over 2019 and 2020 rankings, although the 2023 index saw a dip to 51st and 4th position in the world and Africa respectively.

He said the fall in the country’s peace ranking was attributed to several factors including pockets conflicts, chieftaincy, ethnic, communal and high political tension due to political party primaries supported by toxic media narratives.

“The threats of extremist’s activities in neighbouring Burkina Faso was another concern,” he added.

Mr Bodza said the 2020 elections recorded 32 violent incidents in five constituencies; Awutu East, Odododiodio, Ablekuma, Techiman South and Savelugu in the Northern Region.

“We want the 2024 elections to be as peaceful as any other day in the country,” he stated.

Mr Bodza, however, appealed to the monitors and the people of this country to be alert on any potential threat of the violence extremism in the country.

The member of NPC in the Northern Region, Alhaji Abdul Razak Shani, advised the monitors to file their report timely for appropriate authorities to take actions on any unforeseen circumstances.

He told them to use the knowledge acquired at the training to improve their work.

FROM YAHAYA NUHU NADAA, TAMALE