48 Karaga Peace Ambassadors under training

Star-Ghana in collaboration with the Karaga Peace Ambassadors, have trained assembly members in the Karaga District to enable them to serve as better  mediators in conflicts arising in their respective electoral areas. 

The one-day training was held at the Karaga District Assembly and had all 48 elected and one-dated members including unit committee members participating. 

The Northern Regional Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council (NPC), Reverend Father Thaddeus Kuusah, who facilitated the training, urged Ghanaians to respect the culture of one another to promote peaceful coexistence in communities where different tribes co-habitat. 

 Father Thaddeus noted that most conflicts recorded in Ghana were related to the disregard for individual customs and traditions that are being held high by the various tribes.  

The training formed part of the Conflict, Security, and Stability Fund (CSSF) project in Northern Ghana funded by the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), implemented by the STAR Ghana Foundation in collaboration with the Karaga Peace Ambassadors

The Karaga District over the years has been noted as a conflict area due to the several disturbances arising from farmer-herder conflicts, which at times led to loss of lives and properties.

The project therefore, targeted at helping the people through education to minimise the recurring farmer-herder disagreement in the district. 

Father Thaddeus who encouraged the assembly members to be neutral in dealing with parties in conflict, also urged Ghanaians to be peace-loving, and desist from downgrading the cultures of others as it was the leading cause of conflicts in most communities in Ghana.

“We need to stop looking down on the cultures of others, every tribe values their culture, and so looking down on their culture, will lead to conflict,” Father Thaddeus said.

He urged the assemblymen to ensure they give a listening ear to every party in a conflict without being biased in looking for solutions to those disputes.

The project officer in charge of the CSSF, Aaron Atimpe, said the CSSF was supporting communities and stakeholders at the grassroots level to co-create and co-implement innovative approaches to addressing identified conflict and insecurity issues.

“Under its Conflict Security and Stability Fund (CSSF) Northern Ghana project with funding from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)STAR-Ghana Foundation is supporting three districts and 13 communities in Northern Ghana to implement community-led approaches to address identified conflict and insecurity issues, and to strengthen stakeholder action at the local level towards peace and security,” he said. 

 MrAtimpe said the training was aimed at building the capacities of assemblymen to collaborate with the structures put in place by the project as well as existing structures, to promote the resolution of conflicts in the district.

He said as part of the CSSF project, community monitors were trained and inaugurated to serve as volunteers in settling conflicts in their communities.

The District Coordinating Director, MrAlhassanMahamadu Kamara, on behalf of the district assembly, thanked STAR-Ghana and the Karaga Peace Ambassadors for the initiatives and urged the assemblymen to be peace ambassadors in their respective areas.