The PIND Foundation has trained selected leaders from host communities of oil firms in Delta State to monitor, manage and prevent conflicts before they escalate and disrupt oil operations.

According to Dr. Chukwudi Njoku, capacity Building Coordinator, PIND Foundation peace building programme and training became imperative to mitigate the rising cases of conflicts in communities that are hosts to oil companies.

The Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) is a non-profit organization that promotes peace and equitable economic growth in the Niger Delta region through strategic partnerships and collaborations.

Njoku explained that the training and interaction session would improve the capacity of the participants on peace building as well as conflict management, conflict prevention and conflict mitigation.

He said “We have specifically individuals from communities that are host to oil companies in Delta state, to train them on how they can manage conflicts in their Communities. Not just in their communities, conflicts are usual and normal with himan societies a d there is a need for people to know how to manage this conflict so that they do not escalate into violence.

“The participants are all from Delta state and they were selected from communities that are host to oil companies in Delta state. The goal I’d to build their capacity, enhance their knowledge in conflict prevention and management as well as peace building process.

“Conflicts occur in our daily in our daily activities but in communities that are host to oil companies.We also know there are special conflicts occuring in those places…We have been able to identify some of these conflicts based on the narrations and testimonies of the participants”

Dr. Njoku explained that the training involved working together with the participants in a session on conflict analysis for PIND to understand how the participants think the conflicts can be managed, stressing that there position will help PIND Foundation as an organization to design interventions in those communities that will help in reducing conflicts.

The participants were also trained on conflict early warning and early response, and are expected to act as conflict peace actiors that will be able to report incidents of conflicts to PIND’s early warning and early response system, as well as take action as peace actors to prevent those conflicts from escalating.