By Ndumbe Bell Gaston In Douala
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Cameroon organized a workshop at the precinct of the Delegation of the Ministry for the Promotion of Women and the Family in Douala, to train observers in the prevention of political and electoral conflicts during elections in the country.
The training that took place on Friday, August 10 is intended to prepare a workforce in readiness of the upcoming presidential elections of October 7.
The President of WILPF-Cameroon who stood side by side with the representative of the Regional Delegate of Women’s Affairs in Douala said that the Douala workshop is the last of other workshops which had held in Garoua on the 1st and 2nd of August, Yaoundé on the 7th and 8th of August and that of Bafoussam recently, before coming to Douala which, in a nutshell, represents all the ten regions of the Republic.
Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo recounted a brief historic background on the evolution of the non-governmental organization created since 1915 in the first World War by 1136 women of different nationalities who met at the Hague to oppose the war. Since then, the United Nations gave it full support to involve more women participation in the World to be more vocal and active in conflict resolutions by so doing alter the gender balance in this domain. The organization was started in Douala as recently as July 16, 2016 with their slogan “Cameroon Women For Peaceful Elections” to prevent intimidations, unnecessary molestations and infringement of other individual human rights that may generate to serious conflicts looking at the African perspective.
Speaking at the workshop, the MINPROFF representative threw her might in the goals of this initiative.In a press briefing with the President Sylvie Ndongmo, she declared that, “We think that it is good to install a peace mechanism, looking at Africa. We intend to prevent electoral violence because many countries in Africa have suffered immensely from election violence. You see what is happening in Cameroon. We are worried and we want to be an umbrella of peace.That is why we are training mostly women observers who will be on the field before, during and after the elections.They will be reporting all incidents in the field that are likely to fuel violence. An office is to be created in this delegation to monitor those reports.”
The situation room will have competent authorities like lawyers the police etc. About 150 members are expected to qualify in the nation.