Conflict sensitivity

Just the other day we had this Do no  harm  training/desk review, I always thought I knew what this is but to say the least I was in the dark. I never thought its any thing to do with conflict but just ensuring that projects implemented are aligned to the common community practices  such that you do not maybe cause inflation or increase wage rates because the project you are implementing is paying more that the prevailing wages in the market or overlooking local markets and bringing in stuff that can easily be bought and the supply is sufficient or something close but no its a conflict sensitivity analysis tool(quite timely for me considering how many small conflicts I have been in)

We had these discussions on Luuq and now I can hold a decent discussion on the clan dynamics and power play in Luuq town Marehan Vs Rahwyn , who feels more aggrieved and how we can make it better by fighting/better dialogue with the DC aka Sanjeh (see Somalis love nicknames).Sanjeh means one who has this war marks on his mouth dude was in the army and still wears combats on some days, in totally unrelated stuff even Kagame was in the army which means not all former warlords are bad leaders.

One of the many things that I have come to appreciate is always asking so how is the town mostly I'll get the situation is normal and calm but sometimes very scary news like  7 prisoners escaped from the prison and the Ethiopian forces have arrested the OCS and deputy OCS  because of this and like 2 days before this I heard that 5 women who are wives to the al-shabab were arrested and were in jail so maybe they are amongst those who escaped (how do you marry a guy who is an AS this is something I have to find out) and apparently its not by force and they have very pretty wives as supposedly women like danger really??

I now listen to BBC-Somali ok maybe not out of free will  but because everyone else listens so I just sit and we listen together and news has never been scarier members of parliament were killed in Mogadishu,some guys were be-headed in Baidoa and closer to us a well-known peacemaker was shot dead in Beleth-Hawa :'-(

Talking of do no harm there is a conflict likely to come up in Beleth Hawa that is  revenge killings  people from the clan of the peacemaker will revenge by killing some guys from the clan of the people they suspect shot the elder.This is war gentlemen there are no rules!!!!!!!! (relevance of this statement to this story none but I have always wanted to say this) so clans are dividers(local capacities for war) and in Somalia amongst the first things people will ask you is what is your clan and I always say  Marehan and I wonder why they never believe me.

There is this mosque near our office and everyday in the morning the imam makes dua in Somali I always try to make out what he says,he mostly prays for rain(rob) and peace(nabad) and of late I always hear him mention shabab in his dua and I think to myself 'guy doesn't fear these people.There is a lot of respect for religious leaders and elders and they can therefore easily sort any conflicts hence they are  connectors(local capacities for peace)

Since now I'm more aware of connectors and dividers hopefully I do not get into any conflict or get into them knowing how to get out easily(the power of knowledge :-) )