Sawla-Tuna-Kalba NCCE Sensitises Youth Groups on Violence Extremism.

The National Commission for Civic Education NCCE has sensitised some selected youth groups at Sawla in the SawlaTuna-Kalba District of the Savannah Region on preventing and containing violence extremism (PCVE).

Mr. Issahaku Lonsina the District Director of NCCE speaking at the program said violence and radicalization among the youth had become a major menace to the global community and even though anyone could become an extremist, young people were more likely to be susceptible to recruitment into violence extremist groups.

Mr. Lonsina further stated that the main aim of engaging the youth is because terrorists are all over so we doing this to make sure that the youth get to know the signs of radicalization and how to prevent violent extremism in our communities.

“So we encourage them to form community watchdogs so that we can all be security conscious and vigilant when they see any suspicious character they should inform the security agencies”, he noted.

He further urged them to be tolerant because without peace nothing can go on in this world, respect each other's views, and should not be too political and tribalistic as all these could endanger national cohesion.

Mr. Johnson Apiah Benefo, Bole Sector Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service(GIS) presenting on the topic “preventing violent extremism in Ghana” explained that community surveillance served a very important role in checking and preventing violent extremism and urged the participants to be vigilant of the activities in their communities.

He added that setting up a neighborhood watch or community patrol could be impactful and encouraged the participants to take up the challenge in their respective communities.

Rev. Fr. Martin Kuusagnayiri presenting on “Peace Building Mechanism” noted that peacebuilding involved a cordial relationship and openness to one another and urged the youth to be open and tolerant to other views.

He encouraged participants to actively raise awareness and promote arts and culture.

The forum forms part of the Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) project being implemented by the NCCE with funding support from the European Union (EU) and Technical support from the National Security, aimed at preventing and containing violent extremist activities in the country.

Source: yagbonradioonline