The United Nations Operation in Côte d'ivoire (UNOCI) on Thursday, 28 May 2015, organised a workshop of reflection and discussion for some 60 members of local security forces and civil society groups at youth centre in Soubré, in the southwestern region of Bas Sassandra.



Speaking at the opening ceremony, the representative of UNOCI's Public Information Office which organised the event, explained that the aim was to breakdown the mistrust between the two groups in an effort to improve their collaboration. «Our aim is to ensure that the elections are peaceful. In order to do so, it is important to breakdown the barriers of incomprehension between the people and the security forces by bringing them together during such activities, » said the Prefect of Bas Sassandra Allialli Kouadio. He expressed the hope that similar events wouild be organised in the future.



The head of the UNOCI delegation, Stephen Lyonga Ekosse, recalled the United Nations commitment to estanlish real social cohesion. « JI assure you that we are going to continue to support Côte d'ivoire in all its actions to promote social cohesion in accordance with our mandate and the means at our disposal. Our hope is that at the end of this workshop, such initiatives will multiply in the department to encourage people to use dialogue to resolve their conflicts and differences through consultation and comprise that from now on your efforts focus on local development, « he said.



After presentations on ''managing rumours for a peaceful electoral environment », ''the role of security forces in child protection'', ''respect for ethics and professionalism'', ''restoration of peace through disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration'', participants held group discussions. At the end of these discussions, recommendations were made by each group. These included sensitising security forces on the need to stay neutral during political gatherings ; providing equipment and means of transportation for security forces so that they can respond quickly, organsing several workshops of this kind to increase collaboration between local people and security forces.