Matadi, 8 May 2012 –The United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) through its Civil Affairs Office, organized a training workshop for local experts on the peaceful negotiation, mediation and transformation of local conflicts in Matadi, the provincial capital of Bas-Congo from 8 to 12 May 2012.

This workshop was attended by about a dozen participants from the Mbanza-Ngungu, Songololo, as well as Matadi territories. Prior to this meeting, some of these experts took part in the workshop on conflict classification which focused on analyzing different types of conflicts pre-identified and registered in the database. Now that these conflicts have been prioritized, the purpose of this workshop is to train local experts on peaceful negotiation, mediation and transformation of conflicts before they start working.

With this workshop, "MONUSCO hopes to give impetus to the peaceful transformation of the many conflicts that span the province and which often involve whole communities, which would otherwise be living in peace and harmony," said Assiongbon Tettekpoe Richard, Officer-in- Charge of MONUSCO Office in Matadi.

Maïmouna Traoré/ MONUSCO