Senior military and police officers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have completed a three-day course on Mediation, Coordination and Humanitarian intervention.

  At least 26 senior AMISOM military and police officers drawn from troop contributing countries attended the workshop, whose trainers are from the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD).

AMISOM Deputy Chief of Staff Col. Dahir Aden Abrar officially closed the three day workshop which started on 02 December 2015. He applauded the participants for acquiring the much needed knowledge on conflict management and positive resolution of disputes.

"We need to brace ourselves to meet the challenges. Training on negotiation, mediation and humanitarian intervention did not happen by a mistake but it was planned for this period of our mandate to strengthen our capacity to protect civilians through effective conflict management, support peaceful solutions to disputes as well as effectively coordinate humanitarian interventions in Somalia”

One of the participants, Superintendent of Police Shulla Omilade Aikhoje from AMISOM police said she had gained more knowledge on mediation, negotiation and humanitarian intervention.

"It has been enlightening to me because mostly, I was sure of my standards of operations (SOPs) and I was thinking I can not be able to operate outside the SOP. But with this training on mediation and negotiation, now I have able to learn new skills, that there are ways we peacekeepers can act legally within our SOP without being rigid.  I have equally learnt that we cannot all be a negotiator but most of us could be a mediator,”she stated.

Another participant, Lt. Dennis Kamugyene,  echoed similar sentiments.

"I have enjoyed this course about mediation and negotiation, it has been so helpful and it has enhanced my skills. We managed to acquire skills in handling conflicts that are at hand and definitely every one of us benefitted from the same,” he said

At the successful completion of the three-day workshop, the officers felt better knowledgeable at understanding the evolution of conflict, general approaches to responding to conflict, conflict analysis, evolution of peacekeeping, conflict prevention, conflict resolution and the interfaces between peacemaking, peacekeeping, peace enforcement and peacebuilding, as well as humanitarian intervention.