20 September 2014 - To educate displaced people about ensuring peace and avoiding conflict, UNMISS held a workshop today at its protection area in the Unity State capital Bentiu.

Commemorating International Day of Peace (21 September), the workshop drew 35 participants from the UNMISS Protection of Civilians (PoC) site. It was organized by the mission’s Relief, Rehabilitation and and Peacebuilding (RRP) and Civil Affairs sections.

RRP Officer Salamon Ayanik said the main aim of the activity was to raise awareness among internally displaced persons (IDPs) of the roles they could play in keeping the PoC site peaceful.

“Today we learned what UNMISS can do to help us and how we can stay in harmony,” said Lubna Abullkhany, deputy chief of community leaders in the POC.

“We are from different places and different stages of civilization,” she added. “We face many problems. Here some people well educated and some of them are not educated. Of course, a conflict of understanding can cause problems.”

PoC Information Assistant Leader James Ruji noted that they themselves were causing conflicts in the site. “We are here because of fighting. Should we fight here also? I think not.”

More than 45,000 displaced persons are staying in the UNMISS IDP camp in Bentiu, most of them women and children, facing challenges of insecurity , heavy rains and unhealthy living conditions.