Journalists, Traditional, Religious Leaders Attend Capacity Training

The European Union in partnership with three partners, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Centre For Democracy and Development (CDD) and Mercy Corps Nigeria, has trained journalists, traditional and religious leaders on modern techniques to mitigate conflicts and eradicate insecurity in the country.

This was done during a two-day capacity building training in Zamfara tagged, “Strategic Communication in conflict Environments” funded by the European Union to inculcate the idea of deescalating tense situations in every information and communication in conflict environments.

At the occasion, the regional manager, Centre for Democracy and Development, Mr John Dash Nanfa, said that communication and information have the ability to escalate or deescalate a tense conflict situation.

He maintained that rebuilding the capacity of information and communication gatekeepers on conflict sensitivity reporting, news-verification and fact checking in states should never be a once in a while programme as it plays a major role in mitigating escalated situations and curbing unsuspected crises from seemingly peaceful areas.

Broadcast and social media practitioners as well as traditional office holders and religious leaders were urged to control and manage information at their disposal for the purpose of societal peace, harmony and cohesion.

Community-based organisations and civil society organisations were tasked to control and manage the narrative of every occurrence from the grassroots to mitigate fumes of conflicts to promote resilience, peace building and social cohesion.