By Saio Marrah
As the country approaches its general elections, the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion has in collaboration with Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) trained bike riders in Freetown to serve as peace monitors in reporting cases that will serve as threat to peace and social cohesion.
The training is a two-day programmme that commences on Tuesday 22 May 2023, at the Commission’s Head Office in Freetown.
The training of the bike riders is focused on election observation, conflict prevention, and personal safety and security in the field.
In his PowerPoint presentation, the team lead of KAIPTC, Christian Eshun, said the course objective is for peace monitors to have a better understanding of the electoral processes to be able to identify their roles in elections observations, identify election-related violence and observe measures on the field.
He said they will also be training the peace monitors on how to identify and report early warning signs.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Hawa Sally Samai said in her introductory statement that the training is to accomplish the mandate for which the commission was established.
She told the trainees that as peace monitors, they should report all things that serve as threats to peace in their surrounding by calling 898 using all networks be it related to elections or not.
While telling the bike riders to inform their customers about the toll line and report all cases of threat to peace or violence, she said the commission is also working in collaboration with the various Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) to address the various issues.
She also admonished them that even though the training is mostly about elections, their monitoring process is not just limited to elections, as it will continue. Samai said the training will also continue to the other 15 districts.
According to her, the decision of the commission in working with mobile workers like riders and tricycle riders commonly called “keke” is because they are almost everywhere and they are likely to see most of the happenings in different communities.
The Senior Researcher, Mustapha Abdallah at the KAIPTC, told journalists that KAIPTC is one of the ECOWAS peacekeeping centres of excellence that is situated in Accra Ghana.
He said the centre is committed to training peacekeepers and conflict resolution mediators. Abdallah said the training was based on the need to ensure the promotion of peace and security during elections.
As Sierra Leone is preparing for its elections, which he said they consider as crucial, there is a need for the training centre to contribute to peace and stability within the country.
He said the aim is to build the capacity of key individuals within the country to be able to contribute to election monitoring.
They are expecting the trainees to go into the field and be able to monitor and identify potential threats that can undermine the peace and stability of elections.
He said the key actors should also be able to respond and act effectively so that the country can have an election that is free of threat and instability.
Among the three key areas they will focus on are election monitoring, conflict analysis and training mediators.
The Coordinator for Peace Situation Room established by the commission, Barbara Sangare, said the reason for the establishment of the situation room is to ensure there is peace before and after the pooling day.
Explaining how the situation room works she said they first deal with the early warning signs, which are included in the training.
After receiving the early warning signs, they have mediators at both national and district levels that are ready to intervene and bring peace.
She also talked about the call operators, which she said have been established and operate 24 hours a day and that a whatsapp group has been created for the peace monitors as well.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (24/05/23)
