The Executive Director of UBA Sierra Leone, Mohamed Alhajie Samoura on Thursday 1 September 2022 engaged over one hundred young people drawn from across the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone on leadership and how the absence of peace can adversely affect private sector development.

Mr Samoura specifically spoke on the topic: The Absence of Peace and its Effect on the Private Sector at the official launch of a three-day Training and Conference on Leadership, Politics, and Good Governance on the theme “Youth Leading the Way for Sustainable Development.”

The event took place at the Sierra Leone Peace Museum, New England Ville in Freetown.

Key sponsors of the event are the European Union, National Authorizing Office, UBASL Youth Partnership for Peace and Development and Girls Behind the Lens.

“I want us to imagine, for just one split second or two, what would have happened if this event was held on the morning of August 10, 2022. Would we have all made it in one piece to this hall,” he asked and adds: “Would some of us not have been probably caught up in the violence that engulfed the city that day, bringing life to a standstill? Would we have survived the killings that occurred that day, affecting civilians and our police officers alike?

Mr Samoura recalled his youthful days during the decade long civil war in the country when children were conscripted and armed as child soldiers. He vividly reflected on the use of rape as a tool of war when child combatants with RPGs were only interested in such livelihoods instead of books and pens to go to school. “I have even lived through almost a year of complete standstill in the country because soldiers decided to take power, deny us the beauty of democracy and instead invited the rebels from the jungle to come and help them run what they thought was government,” he recalled.

He said peace was stolen from the people of Sierra Leone and informed young people present at the conference who certainly couldn’t remember the civil, that what they witness on August 10 was a child’s play compared to the reign of terror unleashed on innocent civilians during the war.

UBASL Executive Director described peace as a precious reality, profusely thanked the organizers of the conference and for inviting UBASL to talk on the aforementioned topic.

He added that the August 10 saga influenced by social media and other unidentified people, exposed the fragile nature of the peace the country is enjoying.