PIND Trains 90 Niger Delta Youths On Conflict Early Warning, Peacebuilding
The Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) has trained 90 young people in conflict prevention, early warning systems, and community-level peacebuilding.
The two-day 2025 Niger Delta Peace Champions Workshop, held in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, brought together youths from across the region to equip them with essential skills for promoting peace and stability.
At the workshop, Effiong Essien, acting executive director of PIND, described young people as catalysts for peace, adding that the transformative power of youth-led peacebuilding cannot be overstated.
He commended Akwa Ibom for serving as a model of peaceful coexistence and community-driven development.
“This workshop underscores PIND’s commitment to fostering youth-led, data-driven, and community-based peacebuilding in the Niger Delta,” Essien said.
“By investing in human capital and promoting inter-community cooperation, the initiative strengthens local resilience to conflict and drives economic and social progress.”
Related: PIND Mobilises 11,000 Peace Actors, Mitigates Over 2,000 Conflicts In Niger Delta
David Udofia, peacebuilding programme manager at PIND, said the participants — known as peace champions — have been equipped to return to their communities and become agents of transformation.
“Peacebuilding begins with preparation, vision, and collaboration. These champions are returning to their communities not only with new skills but with a renewed commitment to transform their environments,” he said.
The peace champions, aged 18 to 35, and drawn from the nine Niger Delta States, were trained on PIND’s SMS-based conflict early warning and early response (EWER) system — a tool designed to support real-time conflict monitoring and grassroots intervention.
Participants also engaged in sessions on mindset transformation, conflict analysis and management, leadership, volunteerism, and entrepreneurship.
Facilitators included Nwamara Amadikwa, CEO of Amy6015 Global Enterprise, alongside PIND’s peacebuilding experts: Afeno Odomovo, Chukwudi Njoku, and Abiodun Akanbi.
