Ex-combatants - reintegration and training

In August 2006, Landmine Action's first programme for reintegration and training of ex-combatants began in Liberia.

Landmine Action is working with a group of ex-combatants that has occupied the Guthrie rubber plantation since 2003, who have remained outside the UN disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) process and continue to present a potential threat to peace and stability in the country.

Landmine Action’s programme aims to gain an understanding of the wider issue of armed groups in order to develop a sustainable system of identifying, training and reintegrating ex-combatants into civilian society.

A Liberia staff team of four men and two women, including former combatants, undertook research over three months to develop an understanding of the structure of combatant groups and factors that influence individuals within them. They also looked at ex-combatants perceptions of the reconstruction process and their place in post-conflict society and worked to identify the type of skills training that would be most likely to provide a sustainable livelihood for the majority of the group.

The resulting pilot training programme, in which the ex-combatants move to a formerly derelict, now renovated training and reintegration facility on the Tumutu Rubber Farm, a former Liberian Rubber Development Authority training farm and nursery, has been based on their input and involvement throughout.