By Egbodo Queen
A non governmental organisation (NGO) Mercy Corps, has taken decisive action to stop constant tension that arises between farmers and herders in Kankara and Damusa Local Government Area of the state.
NatureNews can report that Mercy Corps on Monday, introduced conflict resolution and transitional justice for conflict prevention and mitigation.
An analogous discussion was arranged by the state government in association with the nongovernmental organizations at the state level aims to minimize and mitigate tensions and violence during the 2024 crop planting season.
Addressing attendees at the Kankara event, Magdalene Musa, an NGO representative, explained that the goal of the dialogue was to use interest based negotiating to support locally-driven peace initiatives.
She claims that the Conflict Mitigation and Community Reconciliation in North-West Nigeria project was responsible for organizing the conversation.
Magdalene mentioned that the project was a comprehensive 18-month pilot program aimed at lowering community violence in the project’s goal was to make peace-building procedures stronger in order to facilitate the application of community and political responses to violence.
She said, “It’s also to strengthen the governance system to promote social cohesion and address the needs and grievances of the community,” adding that the purpose of the local government discussion was to update local stakeholders on the action plan that was presented during the state level forum.
She notes that this was done to allow the participants who were from the districts of Kankara and Ketare to also implement the strategy in their respective areas.
The LGA’s Director of Personnel Management, Sa’ad Safana, praised the initiative and stated that it would motivate them to improve their committee’s ability to resolve conflicts.
He claims that there was once a standing committee in the local government that was tasked with resolving disputes and was led by a variety of traditional leaders.
He reaffirmed the state’s commitment to providing fundamental social facilities, particularly schools, and guaranteeing that all residents have access to high-quality education.
Mr. Safana continued by saying that the LGA and the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency had recently raised public awareness of the role that drug misuse plays in stoking violence.
Leaders from the community, religion, and tradition were among the attendees at the dialogue gathering who pledged to see the goals of the discussion through to completion.
