Source: Sabahi Online
Somali Ministry of Women and Human Rights in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund and United Nations Children's Fund opened a three-day training in Mogadishu Sunday (July 6th) on ways to combat gender-based violence (GBV), Somalia's Goobjoog News reported.

More than 50 women will receive capacity building training in responding to GBV, including rape.

The training opened after the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) formed a Female Peacekeepers' Network charged with looking after issues related to women and children in Somalia, AMISOM said in a statement on Saturday.

Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission in Somalia Lydia Wanyoto-Mutende called for an end to GBV at the launch of the Female Peacekeepers' Network.

"No woman should be vulnerable and it begins with us -- we need to demonstrate that violence against women is not acceptable," Wanyoto-Mutende said. "We should empower ourselves so that we can then empower our Somali sisters. We should assist the girls who are out of school to go back to school so that they can learn basic skills, know their rights and play a part in the peace-building process in Somalia. It is the women who can tell their sons and husbands not to fight."

• Somalia