More than 200 people from different sections of society in Ferkessédougou department, a locality situated at 620 km north of Abidjan, have made a commitment to consolidate social cohesion and peace. The commitment was made during the announcement of the recommendations made at an intercommunity dialogue session initiated, on the 5, 6 and 7 October 2015, by the Civil Affairs Section of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI).



‹‹ We the traditional, religious, and community leaders make a commitment to meet regularly in order to prevent conflicts and peacefully resolve them whenever they happen, » said Canton Chief of Ferkessédougou, Bruno François.



The spokesperson of the women's associations, Awa Maiga, said that they intended to implement the resolutions made during the discussions in an effort to play an effective role in the consolidation of social cohesion. «It's politics that divides us however during this workshop we were able to speak to each other and accept each other's difference, » she added.



Faced with a number of problems which undermines social cohesion between young people, especially political intolerance, spreading false rumours and lack of understanding of one's rights and duties, N'golo Traoré, the youth representative said that young people had decided to set up a committee which will try to resolve problems with the support of the local authorities. « We make a commitment to no long take the law into our hands but to instead develop a a peaceful and cohesive attitude and sensitise people to learn once again how to live together in total respect according to our traditions and customs and human rights, », he said.



In his closing address, the representative of UNOCI's Office Coordinnator, Alex Kapalo, congratulated local people on the commitments they had made and urged to ensure that these are transformed into action. « When we respect and implement the commitments and recommendations we have made we can then contribute to consolidating a peaceful and cohesive society which is what we all want, » he told participants.



The deputy prefect of Koumbala, representing the Prefect of Tchologo Region, Daniel Gnalla, affirmed that the role of local authorities will be to spread messages of peace and the recommendations made to people in order to create and guarantee a peaceful electorla environment.



The intercommunity dialogue session was organised following recurrent conflicts in the area, namely between traditional chiefs, violence between cattle breeders and farmers, the issue of women's leadership, mistrust between the population and security forces, as well as difficulties between the Christian communities and those who have undergone initiation rites in Poro, in an effort to facilitate dialogue between different sections of the population, in order to strengthen social cohesion.



At the end of the workshop discussions, participants from Togoniéré, Koumbala, Kissankaha and Ferkessédougou made recommendations aimed at resolving their differences peacefully. These included encouraging full participation of the population in resolving conflict, strengthening capacity among cattle breeders and farmers in the prevention and management of conflict, encouraging collaboration between the security forces and ordinary civilians; creating a mediation committee and relaunching committees in charge of manoitoring and managing crises. In addition, they also requested that the State facilitates the identification of land in an effort to resolve the problem of rural land ownership.