Communities that were identified with violent groups of young people tagged as clique boys have settled for a peaceful mediation after the intervention of the community stakeholders within the Fourah bay and Kossoh town communities, who want to put a halt to the anti- social menace that has been disturbing the peace of many residents in the respective communities and across the country.

The attitude of the violent groups has been tormenting the peace of ordinary citizens every other day and had become a thorn in the flesh of the community people, and also difficult for the Police to contain the issue since it was sporadic.

The initiative was pioneer by Mr Habib Mansaray who utilised his negotiating skills to bring the Clique leaders together for the long awaited sanity that was missing in the respective communities. He said he was disturbed by mischievous attitude of the young folks, who were harassing residents and passers-by on regular basis and that the only way to stop the action was to engage them for peaceful co-existence as it has been happening for over 10 years.

Mr Edmondson Sonny Cole a renowned Sierra Leonean journalist who has worked for the SLBS then and served couple of presidents at State House supported the pioneer of the initiative to bring the clique boys together. The meeting at Marshall Street was colourful and paved the way for a second meeting at Kossoh town community.

People were living in fear and always running away whenever the boys are each other’s throats and terrorising innocent citizens. The attitude of these boys is not just limited to the two communities but right across the country’s major cities. The past government tried to contain them but it was however difficult because they were allegedly secretly supporting the boys to carry out destructive action on their opponents. This is the route the new direction government should not follow and must instead maintain the peaceful co-existence of its citizens.

The Eastern Police Division and community stakeholders are going to be having constant engagements with the ring leaders of the various groups and will take them through respective reintegration processes until they could be identified as peace ambassadors’ in their communities.

The willingness of the boys to come and embrace peace was what the residents at a well-attended meeting at Kossoh town described as “readiness in unity “ by the boys to support the peace process that many people across Freetown have been calling for . The channel used to get the boys was appropriate since most of them have shown commitment to the process genuinely without financial rewards. Most of them have called on the stakeholders to provide them with job opportunities in the various companies within the communities, to ease the idleness. It is clear manifestation that if the “clique social ambiguity “is amicably addressed at Fourah bay and its immediate environs, it will become a testament that will ripple down to other communities in the Freetown and beyond.

The act of terrorising the communities by the clique boys happens during football matches, social events, political rallies and beating up of one member of the fraternity, among others. It has been disturbing the social interaction and peaceful co-existence of people and lives have been lost, innocent citizens attacked which is not good for a country that has experienced war and unprecedented disaster.

Assuring the boys about his commitment to the process, the honourable Sheriff Carew of constituency112 issued two scholarships to members of the various clique groups to undertake vocational studies in any area of their choice and also promised to work with the others to help them secure employment.

Since then, the Call to Action has been endorsed by eight countries, including: Georgia, Ghana, México, Moldova, Nepal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Uganda. UNICEF’s Safe to Learn: #ENDviolence in Schools work will continue throughout 2019, the first full year of the campaign, driving toward our three aims and guided by both the Safe to Learn Call Action and the #ENDviolence Youth Manifesto

The peace amongst the various groups is commendable but the sustainability is what many people are questioning. The meeting was climaxed by a peace March displaying their black and red handkerchiefs up to the Malta Street where the two communities are separated.