Preventing Conflicts : Mbanga Youths Embrace Peace

With the influx of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the North West and South West into the Littoral and West Regions of Cameroon as a result of the ongoing crisis, conflicts are bound to occur. In some cases, the host communities are not welcoming and turn to oppress the IDPs, while on the other hand, the IDPs feel rejected. Most of these conflicts arise over the use of resources, education, healthcare services and more.
To prevent further conflicts, UNESCO has embarked on a series of training workshops to educate and train especially youths within hosts communities on the importance of peace and living together. The training workshop under the project "Strengthen the role of Young people in the promotion of Living together and multiculturalism through secondary education and centres non formal and informal learning in Cameroon", is aimed at contributing considerably to mitigating existing tension and preventing the emergence violent conflicts between IDPs and their host communities. Against these backdrop, some youths in Mbanga were mobilised on November 7- 8 to be enlightened on the importance of living together, multiculturalism and the promotion of peace. For two days, the over 25 participants received lessons on different topics including human rights, conflicts management, prevention of conflict, multiculturalism, civic education and living together.
One of the resource persons, Julbert Tonye, senior consultant in peace education, explained that they instilled the culture and education of peace in the youths. He said they ensured that the youths will become ambassadors for peace when they returned to their communities. "Conflicts most often starts slowly and then escalate and nobody can predict the end. But if the youths are knowledgeable about conf...