Launch activities to discourage young people from engaging in terrorism – Commonwealth Officer

Ms Amy Longland, program manager at the Counter-Violent Extremism (CVE) Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat, urged the government, security agencies, education and community actors to initiate activities to discourage association or re-engagement with actions related to terrorism.

She said such activities should emphasize cultural and social empowerment through community involvement to win the hearts and minds of the main targets of exploitation or persuasion for terrorism-related activities.

These, together with activities that address the root causes of terrorism, would go a long way in preventing violent extremism.

Ms. Longland made the suggestions on Wednesday at the start of a two-day capacity building workshop on preventing and countering violent extremism held in Accra.

The workshop was organized by the CVE Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat in partnership with the National Peace Council (NPC) of Ghana.

The event would help participants update and enhance their existing expertise and gain a better understanding of the basics of violent extremism and approaches to prevent or counter violent extremism.

This would foster an understanding of countering violent extremism in the Ghanaian context and increase their conflict and peacebuilding skills that could be applied in local, regional and national scenarios.

Again, the workshop would increase the mediation and management skills of stakeholders, especially in project management and the interface between governance and civil society organizations.

Participants included; Members of the AFN Board of Directors, Presidents of Regional Peace Councils, Executive Secretaries of ANP, and Executive Secretaries of various Regional Peace Councils.

Ms Longland said to mitigate counterterrorism, the government and security or intelligence agencies should put in place strict measures to deny logistical opportunities to terrorist activity.

Thus, the fight against terrorism required a “hard approach” while the fight against violent extremism employed a “soft approach”.

She said they should also disrupt and stop terrorist groups or networks.

The Commonwealth Secretariat’s program manager said violent extremism is the use and support of violence in the pursuit of ideological, religious or political goals.

She said that preventing and countering violent extremism (PCVE) included “the use of non-coercive means to deter individuals or groups from mobilizing against violence and to mitigate recruitment, support, facilitation or engagement in ideologically motivated terrorism by non-state actors in pursuit of political goals.

Reverend Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, chairman of the board of the NPC, said the threat of terrorism and violent extremism in West Africa and along Ghana’s borders had intensified discourse among country security circles.

He said other domestic threats, which provided fertile ground for violent extremist activities, included chieftaincy conflicts and ethnic clashes, conflicts between farmers and herders, violent protests, armed robberies, the proliferation of weapons, drug trafficking, political polarization, violent groups and kidnappings.

The President urged the participants to use the workshop to build their capacity to improve the operations of the NPC.

Mr. Assan Ali, capacity building manager of the CVE unit of the Secretariat, mentioned some reasons behind the acts of violence, including injustice, the feeling of being threatened, poverty and the assumption of following the right path. way.

He said the top five drivers of violent extremism were lack of socio-economic opportunities, marginalization and discrimination, poor governance, violations of human rights and the rule of law, protracted and unresolved conflicts and radicalization in prisons.

Mr Ali said it was essential to understand the root causes of support for violent extremist movements to design appropriate responses, adding that there was no “one-size-fits-all” theory or profile to anticipate the circumstances in which violent extremism would occur. or who were at risk of radicalization.

He stressed that it was imperative not to make assumptions about a given group or individual in the context of VEC, but rather to allow local knowledge and analysis to inform decisions.

— RNG