The nongovernment organisation, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) says it has trained 100 religious and traditional rulers on inter-faith dialogue to resolve and heal wounds of hatred and extremism among the communities in Gwoza local government area of Borno state.
Steve Amuda, programme officer for CDD in Maiduguri, disclosed this during final phase of the project title; “Peace Building and Countering Violent Extremism in Gwoza LGA, Borno state” in Maiduguri that the aimed of the activity is to building social coherence and harmony in Gwoza and its environs.
“Gwoza is one of the most affected LGA in Borno state> We are trying to see how we can use our intervention strategy to build capacity of religious and traditional leaders as well as youths in Gwoza community.
The programme started last year with trainings and workshop for 20 traditional and religious leaders and 50 youths on countering violence extremism.
“We had a follow-up where we brought them to Maiduguri to access the level of implementation of what we have given them, so we were shocked at the end of validation meeting we had with them. Initially, there were no trust among religion leaders, they were accusing one another but after the first and second phase of the project they were able to forgive the past,”Amuda said.
In bringing Christian and Muslim leaders together, Amuda said, ” We created three inter-faith dialogue for six months as well as three sanitation programmes for six months. The inter-faith program was mainly for religious and traditional rulers while sanitation program was for the youths,” he said.
Amuda explained that the final phase of the programme that took place last week was to mark the end of the project.
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