The Savannah Regional Peace Council has sensitised youth in tertiary and second cycle schools in the region to concientise them on the risks and vulnerability factors of violent extremism and radicalisation.

It was to empower the youth to effectively support the fight against violent extremism and radicalisation in the country.

It formed part of a comprehensive effort of Countering and Preventing Violent Extremism in the region, which shares boundary with the Sahel, where the activities of terrorism and violent extremism are active.

Youth at Bole Senior High School (SHS) Bole Nurses and Midwifery Training College, the Savannah College of Education and the Daboya Day SHS benefited from the initiative.

The initiative was undertaken with support from the United Nations Development Programme and other development partners including the Norwegian Embassy, the Embassy of Denmark, Australian Aid, and the German Development Cooperation.

Reverend Father Lazarus Annyereh, Chairperson, Savannah Regional Peace Council, who led the facilitation team to visit the various schools, expressed need for the youth to be active players in the fight against violence and the work against violent extremist organisations in the country.

He added that unresolved conflicts in the region, discrimination, and marginalisation of minority groups as well as harsh and unpredictable economic conditions were critical push factors of radicalisation.

He urged the youth to be alert and conscious and not allow themselves or other community members to be radicalised, adding whenever they detected anything fishy in their communities, they should report to the appropriate authorities while making sure their personal safety and security were not compromised.

He said knowledge was key in the effort to counter and prevent extremism and the radicalisation of the youth, hence the initiative.

Mr Kennedy Atiibo Ayatah, Executive Secretary, Savannah Regional Peace Council, in making the students understand peace and its importance to society, likened peace to the health of an individual.

He said, “The way ill-health affects the individual is the same way violence or the absence of peace affects society, no matter the achievements an individual has made, without health, they will all mean nothing to him or her because he or she cannot enjoy them.”

He emphasised that the absence of peace or its dividends affected the youth more than any group because “They are usually the ones, who will go out to fight and lose their lives or get maimed when violence breaks out. It also puts to jeopardy the prospects of a better future, which belongs to the youth more than the aged.”

He made the point to underscore the fact that the youth mattered a lot in the peacebuilding efforts made by the country, hence the initiative.

He appealed for the formation of Peace Ambassadors’ Clubs (PACs) in the schools through which the Peace Council would raise the next generation of peace advocates, who would guarantee sustainable peace for the country and the world.

School authorities at Bole SHS and Daboya Day SHS embraced the idea of PACs and promised to appoint patrons to facilitate the formation of the PAC in their schools.