ICRC trains 20 journalists on laws of war, media reportage

By Umar Dankano

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has held an extensive capacity building training on international laws of war and media reportage for twenty select journalists from across the country in Abuja.
During the 3-day training which was conducted from 17th to 19th December 2024, the facilitators mostly lawyers drilled the participants in areas concerning legal prohibitions, protections and sanctions against violators of the ground rules concerning international armed conflicts as well as local or domestic war crimes.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Silas Aondona,Communication officer,ICRC Abuja Sub-delegation congratulated the few participants for accessing the opportunity with a sole aim of strengthening and broadening their knowledge on humanitarian activities.
Aondona charged participants to ensure that the takeaways from the training will enrich their professional etiquettes noting that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral and independent humanitarian organization, with the mandate to protect the dignity of victims of armed conflict as well as other situations of violence.
Aondona reiterated that, the ICRC has been present in Nigeria since 1988, working closely with the Nigerian Red Cross and have been responding to the needs of people affected by armed conflicts and violence in terms of providing emergency assistance, medical support, water supply, and family reunification.
“Duing situations of armed conflicts and violence. The ICRC also disseminates international humanitarian law to the armed and security forces”. Aondona highlighted.
In her address,Yuxia Jiang,official of the ICRC registered the commitment of the ICRC in continuous partnership with critical stakeholders with special emphasis to the media whose roles matter a lot.
Jiang said that as a Support in media reporting considering the vital role played by journalists during armed violence, the ICRC organized the 3-day workshop on the law of war and media reporting for professional in the media circle.
Responding, Hauwa Maijiddah of VOA and Sani Garko Kano expressed gratitude to the organization for the opportunity to participate in the training which they said was apt and timely.