The Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) division of the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire, (UNOCI), on 28 April 2015 organised a 2-day workshop for media professionals on the theme: Managing information for a peaceful environment.

Participants included some 20 men and women of the local media and agents of the national Authority for DDR (ADDR) who discussed ways of sensitizing the population to consolidate peace and promote social cohesion as well reinforce DDR messages in order to speed up the disarmament and reintegration of all ex-combatants before the end of June 2015 in accordance with directives of the Ivorian president.



« In our countries, journalists can easily be makers of war or makers of peace. What we are doing here is asking you to be makers of peace by contributing to restore peace because we have come a long way, » the representative of the UN Country Team Coordinator in San Pedro, Roger Agode said at the opening of the workshop.



The ADDR official for Bas Sassandra, Coulibaly Zoumana requested the support of the journalists for the smooth continuation of the process and to relay approriate information on the DDR process so that everyone including the ex-combatants is well informed of the process.



A spokesman for the participants welcomed the initiative by UNOCI's DDR division saying "the discussions were enriching especially as they stressed the importance of the choice of words in order to avoid hurting people's feelings while sticking to the facts in the treatment of information."

The workshop is scheduled to move on to Tabou on 30 April 2015.