Youth of the Brifor ethnic group from across Ghana were joined by their counterparts from Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire to mark the 2023 Biannual Congress of the Brifor Youth Association, BYA.
The three-day congress of the BYA was held in Tuna in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of the Savannah Region under the theme “Promoting peace and unity in cultural diversity, the role of BYA.”
The association serves as the major mouthpiece of the Brifor community in Ghana.
Since its inception and registration in 1989, the association has worked to improve education, health, and social justice in Brifor communities.
The Congress in Tuna was to afford members the opportunity to discuss and forge ways of improving the activities of the association.
The Public Relations Officer of the Association, Joseph Wereh told Citi News that they “discussed among other things steps to take in promoting the culture of the Brifor people, promote social justice and peaceful coexistence with other ethnic groups as well as improving education in Brifor communities.”
Speaking at a durbar to climax the 2023 Congress, the Member of Parliament for Sawla-Tuna-Kalba constituency, Andrew Dari Chiwitey, a Brifor himself called on the youth to eschew violent tendencies as the political season heats up.
“We can have business flourish if there is peace, the main thing is that we must be peaceful wherever we find ourselves. Very soon we will be going into our political activities, mostly it is the youth that champions the political activities, we must have peace before we become politicians.”
The National President of the Brifor Youth Association, Vivien Ne-Ormah Nyoni, assured other ethnic groups in the Bole, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, and Wa West Districts of the commitment of Brifors to peacefully coexist.
She however added that Brifors, as much as they are peace-loving, would not like to be suppressed and oppressed.
“Brifors are generally a peace-loving people who have coexisted with other tribes since time immemorial, in as much as we are peace-loving, we will not want to be suppressed and oppressed thus virtue of peace-loving was bestowed on us by our forebears, and we intend to jealously guard it.”