Election 2024: Peace Council working to ensure zero violence in hotspot communities

The National Peace Council is interested in ensuring zero violence across 289 identified conflict hotspot communities across the country during the 2024 general elections.

“There are several conflict spots in this country, and the peace council is interested in making sure that these hotspots do not degenerate into violence during the elections," says Dr. Razak Jaha Imoro, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Cape Coast.

Dr. Imoro made this known during an interview with the media on the sidelines of a two-day training programme at Dorimon in the Wa West District of the Upper West Region.

The three-year project, which is being implemented across the Upper West, Upper East, and North-East Regions, is for traditional and religious leaders on conflict resolution, negotiations, and confidence building for effective conflict management at the community level.

The project is funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Dr. Imoro noted, therefore, that essentially, the project was about helping these people resolve their own conflicts without resorting to any form of violent behaviour.

“Again, it is to help them identify the early warning signs and report them to the appropriate authorities, including the security agencies, the peace council, and/or the traditional authorities," he added.

The Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast justified that with the kind of electioneering campaigns that were going on and the kind of tension building up in some of these hotspot communities, there was a need to start sensitizing and conscientizing the people in order for them to embrace peaceful co-existence.

He said elections often serve as triggers for conflicts and called on Ghanaians to cultivate a certain culture of peace in order to achieve another peaceful election and further consolidate the country’s democratic gains.

“Within our communities and within our own spaces, there are issues that create conflict, and we should begin to inculcate within ourselves that kind of peaceful culture that enables us to solve our problems without resorting to violence," he said.

Madam Rita Benewah Yali, Deputy Director of Administration at the National Peace Council, said the Council is also putting in place the local peace committees, which would be tasked with the responsibility of monitoring to identify early warning signs.

“They will also be trained on how to identify these early warning signs, communicate peace, organize peace sensitization programmes, and facilitate the resolution of minor conflicts in their various communities," she said.

Madam Benewah Yali noted that the beneficiary communities have already started to appreciate the initiative by the Peace Council and its partners as they request more of engagements.

At Fielmuo, the youth said that since 2015, that was the first time the two communities in conflict sat together to have meaningful discussions," Madam Rita Benewah Yali said.

“We are hoping that we will receive more funding to do more of the engagements to help these communities adopt alternative strategies to resolve their internal conflicts rather than resorting to violence," she said. “He encouraged participants to become peace ambassadors by disseminating the information to the rest of the community members."

According to her, they do not expect to hear that there was a drop of blood in these hotspot communities during the elections after these engagements.

Rev. Fr. Dr Moses Banungwiiri, the Archdeacon of the Anglican Church in Wa and the Chairman of the Upper West Regional Peace Council observed that envy, hatred, and the influence of money have fueled many of these conflicts, thereby destroying the peace in the affected communities.

He was, however, hopeful that with the training, community members would be ready and willing to expose the characters behind such atrocities to restore peace to the communities.