African Youths Urge for their Active Role in Promoting Peace, Dev’t

ENA November 29/2019 Youths in the Africa should play a positive role in promoting peace and unity to avoid conflicts in societies, African youths who participated in a peace conference said. 

Last Tuesday Addis Ababa hosted a two-day workshop for African youths under the theme “Peace Ethiopia: Cross-Regional Dialogue and Experience Sharing”.

The workshop was organized by the Government of Ethiopia, in association with the African Union (AU), to deliberate on youth’s engagement and participation in nation building, normative frameworks on youth’s roles in peace and nation building.

Participant youth who talked to ENA said it is important to provide youths with training opportunities to take an active role in promoting peace and development across the in the continent.

Chadian young volunteer and member of several civil associations, Alhafiz Hassan Ahamat, said “we youth like the statistics shows we are big in number, so we should participate in peace and development activities in our respective countries.”

“I think that our participation is very important,” he said, emphasizing that the potential of youths hold for change and constructive action is critical to avoid conflict and sustain peace.

The United Nation Population Prospects statistics estimate that about 1.4 billion youths in the world are between the age of 15 and 24, out of which a billion lives in developing countries where conflict is more likely to have taken place.  

Hassan said “when we grow up with the sprite of peace and coexistence without any conflict, we will cultivate unity and tolerance. This will help to work together for development of our country and the continent.”

Commissioner for Youths and Sports for Oyo State in Nigeria, Seun Fakorede said the youth can contribute a lot in promoting peace in Africa.

Encouraging youth participation in peace and development is imperative in the move to bring changes in what Africa aspires to achieve in the future.

Youths have immense role in peacekeeping, nation building and development, he stated and adding that engineering the mindset of the youth is crucial with the growing wave of social turmoil and humanitarian crises in various parts of the globe.

African leaders need to further enhance the engagement of youth in peace and other regional issues in order to play their multi-faceted roles, according to Fakorede.

“I feel that if all leaders in Africa can actually bring youth to board, give them opportunity to self, opportunity to express and excuse; I believe that the continent will become a better place for the youth,” he added.

A Kenyan youth, Albashir Mohamed, stated that youths have immense responsibilities in ensuring peace and catalytic development endeavors in Africa.

“Without the youth nothing is can be successful,” he said, stressing African leaders to invest heavily on the youth.

Head of Conflict Perfection and Early Warning Division, Peace and Security Department at AU, Ambassador Fred Ngoga said the workshop is actually to bring together the youth to share experiences on how they can act on prevention and mediation of conflicts.

“As we all know very soon we have elections coming up in different parts of the continent, particularly in Ethiopia and we want to bring of the youth from other African countries who have gone through the same experiences and to talk to Ethiopian youth how basically they can be the agents of peace,” he added.