Nigerian journalists have been charged to intensify efforts at ensuring adequate coverage of under-reported armed conflicts and deadly violence in communities so as to reduce tension and promote peace, security and sustainable development in the country.

They have also been told that it was only through professional investigative journalism that potential triggers of armed conflicts and violence in communities can be forestalled and mitigated by the proactive response of security agencies, voluntary humanitarian organisations and governments.

The Abuja Communications Coordinator, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Aleksandra Matijevic Mosimann, stated these in her remarks at the opening session of a two-day training event for select journalists, at Ritz Continental Hotel, Abuja, last week.

The training opportunity, organised in partnership with the Nigeria Red Cross Society (NRCS)s, brought together ….. print, radio and television journalists drawn from across the North, South and the Middle Belt of the country, and focused on, “Humanitarian Reporting: How International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Protect Journalists.”

Mosimann explained that the strategic annual workshop was designed to build the capacity of journalists in the area of ‘humanitarian reporting’, while creating a platform for national media discourse on issues faced by professionals in reporting armed conflicts and violence.

She emphasised the importance of the event to help increase awareness of international humanitarian law, deepen understanding of activities of ICRC and NRCS to the promotion of peace, unity and development, as well as share expertise on how the provision of First Aid could enhance chances of survival of victims of violent conflicts, including insurgencies, cult-related violence, herdsmen-farmers’ skirmishes and communal disturbances.

According to her, “The ICRC is working on ensuring that stakeholders in the media industry understand the weight of responsibility that comes with reporting on humanitarian consequences of armed conflicts and other situations of violence as well as understanding the protection that they are entitled to under the IHL.”

Speaking as a resource person, the Communications Assistant, ICRC, Sylbil Sagay, said the aim of international humanitarian law was to prevent suffering during armed conflicts, adding that ICRC had the responsibility to provide desperately needed voluntary legal expertise to support the efforts of the Nigerian authorities to ratify and implement IHL treaties.

The National Head of Communications, NRSC, Nwakpa Okorie Nwakpa, explained that the society’s volunteers provide First Aid, evacuate casualties and collect dead bodies from scenes of conflicts, and hand same over to the authorities, while ensuring that relevant information was recorded to help families track missing relatives and loved ones.

He highlighted the vital role volunteers of the Red Cross play in focusing efforts at providing access to difficult-to-reach areas where both Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other victims of armed conflicts and violence facing severe food shortages, and providing reliefs to those who urgently need them.

“The Red Cross also meets with the elders of negatively impacted communities seeking their support in identifying those affected to enable them effectively distribute food and essential household items to IDPs, returnees and residents,” Nwakpa added.

He challenged journalists to focus more attention on coverage of unreported cases and victims of armed conflicts, cult-related violence, insurgency, militancy and other hot spots of death and human cruelty and annihilation, and the challenges they face so as to provide first responders and governments with necessary information that could aid responsible handling of the problems.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana