PEACE BUILDING INITIATIVES FOR THE COMMUNITIES IN MARKA

Contents:

• Introduction
• Situations of MARKA town
• Peace building initiatives
• Training Topics
• Objectives of this peace building training
• Expected outcome
• Methodology
• Participants
• Conclusion

·      Introduction:

South-West State Human Rights Organization is a voluntary, non-governmental, non- partisan human rights Organization committed to the promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Somalia.

SWS-Human Rights mainly operates in the South-West State of Somalia to seek out multiple perspectives to develop peace, harmony and togetherness among the communities living in this state.

Conflict prevention and Peace building training initiative is a program which is part of the SWS-Human rights activities plan set aside to build up sustainable peace and harmony in the Communities living in south west state, particular, lower Shebelle region whereby inter-community conflicts are the main causative factors of the human rights violations happening, and this training and awareness of peace building activities being conducted was seen as to be the most suitable activity to minimize the human rights violations and as well as to create peaceful understanding in the societies.

This training of conflict prevention and peace building was conducted for communities in MARKA district in order to prevail and strengthen the peace among the residents in this area and this activity gets benefited from its main generous support of the members of South West State Human rights Organization and its other partners in the field of Human rights in the Horn of Africa.

The facilitator of the peace building activities is the Coordinator of South-West State Human Rights organization called Faisal Abdullahi who has long term experience in the human rights field and the co-founder of the organization.

MARKA is the headquarter of the Lower Shebelle region of Somalia and its populations is estimated around two hundred and fifty thousand and it is located along the coastal line of the Indian Ocean which is 90km of north-west of the capital city of Somali.

MARKO town was liberated in the late of 2012, but Inter-community Conflicts engulfed the town which claimed thousands of lives and caused massive displacements and destructions of all livelihood structures including health, Water and education facilities, and later these conflicts led the district to go simple into the hands of AL-SHABAB again in the late of 2015 after the government of Hassan Sheikh failed to reach solution over the Clan conflicts existed at that time.

THE SITUATIONS OF MARKA TOWN.

AL-SHABAB ruled the town again for the last three years by getting advantage of the long term existed clan armed conflicts, but early September 2018, the government with the help of the AMISOM recaptured the town, And on 15th October 2018, the president Mohamed Abdulahi Farmajo visited MARKA town to encourage the peace and harmony among the communities in order to strengthen the unity and togetherness of the residents of the area, and   made a call for his ministries to start immediate operation in MERKA, and as well as the president requested the humanitarian agencies and other   stakeholders to assist the people of MERKA in terms of reconstructions and reconciliation programs.

The inter-community conflicts existed in the town which was between BIIMAAL and HABERGIDIR have got a bit solution and being lowered all the tensions and also the fighting militias were removed from the battle lines and got a bit dismantled and promised to be taken in to a Military Camp for training to become SNA.

The civilians who fled either due to AL-SHABAB or Clan conflicts are now returning to the district from Mogadishu and other regions to get back to their normal livings after six years of clan armed conflicts.

There is high need of humanitarian assistance in the district now because all facilities of Health, education, water facilities and other livelihood structures ruined in the inter-community conflicts and AL-SHABAB confrontations.

The accessibilities of the Civilians from Mogadishu to MARKA is good but the accessibility of the Aid workers and other government officials from Mogadishu to the town is by sea- boat because there is fear of AL-SHABAB ambush on the road.

All in all, MARKA town is now in the hand of SNA and people now a bit enjoying with some little peace after six years of continues fighting which had based on different factors and its security is a bit good as the insecurity incidents are less comparing to the other southern towns in Somalia but the fear is the warring parts are still in the town and war may get back again in simple ways.

·      Conflict Prevention and Peace building initiative

This initiative is meant to create peace and harmony in the armed conflicted areas through awareness and training, and it is one of the main objectives of SWS-Human rights to develop sustainable peace in its direct operational zone and also its aim is to enhance the work of the peace building actors by facilitating information sharing and promoting critical discussion to happen.

This is the fourth consecutive Peace building activities being conducted by SWS-Human Rights in Lower Shebelle region in order to push the two conflicted clans called BIIMAAL and HABERGIDIR to reach peace agreements, and to reduce the influences of

 

AL-SHABAB in the clan conflicts because AL-SHABAB was one of the main factors causing conflicts among the communities residing in the region in order for them to have bases in the region.

This peace building initiative of SWS-Human Rights in lower shebelle has got impact in the Communities and positively contributed to the reconciliation of the conflicted Communities in the area.

This report is indicating the last training being conducted about peace building in MARKA town to enhance the peace and minimize the human rights violations.

·      Training Topics

 Certain selected topics have been set aside in such area impacted violence and armed conflict to influence the communities to empower with tactics and mechanisms of making them to enable to end the violence and capable to reach solution of their armed conflicts. In this training, the following subjects were focused in presentations and discussions;

• Conflict Prevention
• Problem Solving
• Human dignity and importance of diversity
• Importance of peace and Disadvantages of armed conflicts

 

These are the sub-topics being deeply discussed in this peace building training in order for the communities enable to tackle what interrupt their peace in the environment.

·      Objectives of this peace building training

The main objectives of this training are;

• To promote and strengthen the recently peace agreements reached between BIIMAAL and HABERGIDIR to end their long term armed conflict and empower the two clans to progress their peace with tactic ways and turn new page for living in harmony and unity.
• To empower the community leaders living in this conflicted area with peace building capacity in order to prevail peace in the TOWN

·      Expected outcome

The main expected result is the creation and strengthened of sustainable peace in the MARKA district, particular, the two conflicted clans to get lived with peace and harmony, and lower Shebelle at large and also to get reduction of the human rights violations.

·      Methodology

This peace building initiative is based on the training of the different structures of the community members in MARKA district using the experience with intercultural and non-formal education approaches.

·      Participants

The participants of the training were selected from both the conflicted communities in MARKA town, particular, for those who have influences in the Communities like; Elders, Women groups, Community Leaders, Religious and youths to progress the peace reached between BIIMAAL and HABERGIDIR and to be also a forum of exchanging their ideas towards living in peace and harmony.

·      Recommendations

• There is high need for humanitarian assistance for the people living in MARKA because all the livelihood structures including heath, Education and Water facilities ruined in the inter-community Conflicts and AL-SHABAB confrontations and people are returning to their
• There is little peace agreement reached for the long armed conflicts between BIIMAAL and HABERGIDIR in the town, therefore, there is high need for peace

building training to create dialogue forums and communities integrations and also to strengthen the peace itself because the peace existing now is a feeble and the trainings and awareness being conducted by SWS-Human rights are not enough.

• The Clan fighting militias being removed from the battle lines are still in the town, so, there is need to pressurize the government to collect these militias and put them into military training camps to join SNA, because, there is fear that, if the militias remain in the Town fighting might break out
• Need for putting pressure on the federal Government and south-west state to establish administration for this new liberated town like to appoint DC, Police and Courts because there is no administration right now and only SNA are staying, and if the town remains lack of administration, clan armed conflicts may get erupted again because the warring parts are still in the

 

·      Conclusion:

The training was very important and beneficial and just came on the right time to happen in this long war torn town called MARKA in order to strengthen the ongoing process of the reconciliation among the conflicted communities after the government recapture the town from AL-SHABAB recently and the training ended as successful as according to the requirement put aside.

End:

Conducted by Faisal Abdullahi, in Partner with South west state Human rights Organisation.