ReliefWeb

Mogadishu, 3 December, 2020 – Meeting in Mogadishu for 3 days, 40 Galmudug State representatives attended an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) organized workshop on reconciliation and conflict management to equip them with the necessary skills to mediate and resolve conflicts and disagreements in their communities.

The workshop which ended on Wednesday was conducted by the AMISOM Political Affairs Unit and brought together elders, women, youth and members of parliament from Galmudug State. The attendees were taken through the following topics: understanding conflicts, nature and types of conflict, reconciliation and conflict resolution and the types of generic traditional conflict in Somalia and the local resolution mechanism. The group discussions on the above subjects were very lively with participants actively taking part and sharing their personal experiences.

AMISOM Political Officer Muna Hassan Mohamed said they organized the workshop to help foster grassroot peace in Galmudug State and encourage women and youth to actively take part in peacebuilding efforts in order to help reduce future conflicts and actively take part in their civic duties.

“Since the conflict in Somalia hugely affected the people we were looking at how best to bring these people together in order to dialogue in a conducive environment so that that they at least learn and agree how to resolve their conflicts,” Muna said.

Speaking during the closing ceremony of the workshop, First Deputy Speaker of Galmudug parliament Abdullahi Hersi Mohamed hailed AMISOM Political Affairs Unit for organizing such a timely training for Galmudug representatives and urged them to put into action lessons learnt in order to help move Galmudug State and Somalia forward.

“I believe this is the first time the new Galmudug government is receiving such important training. We hope you will give us more training opportunities and train many more of our people to address any arising conflicts,” the Deputy Speaker of parliament Mohamed said.

Member of parliament Anab Mohamed Osoble believes the involvement of women and youth in the negotiating table during conflict resolution mechanism has proved vital in reducing tensions and further animosity amongst warring communities since women play a catalytic role of being natural peace ambassadors.

“What we learnt here includes some of the conflicts that have traditionally engulfed our people and we were also given the tools and ways we can resolve those conflicts. We also learnt the effects of conflicts and how to prevent it. In the last 3 days we leant a lot and we will take back what we learnt here to our communities so that they also benefit from the knowledge,” lawmaker Anab said.

For 25-year-old youth Abdikafi Abdi Abdille, who has political ambitions to contest in the upcoming Federal parliamentary elections, youth like him can play both constructive or destructive roles within the society depending on how best their energy is harnessed or utilized.

“The youth here today have one hundred percent realized how to resolve conflicts and also how to prevent the conflict from happening and more importantly how not to be used to kill themselves and their people,” the young Abdille said.