ActionAid Ghana has called on stakeholders to assist in the fight against gender-based violence in rural communities in the Northern Region.

It said issues of the abuses on women and girls were the major prevailing problem in the rural communities as a result of the availability of limited law enforcement agencies.

It made the statement at a meeting in Bimbila with some stakeholders aimed at dialoguing on issues regarding violence against women and girls as well as coming out with modalities to collectively resolve such issues through a community watchdog called the Community Based Anti-Violence Team (COMBAT) at the community level.

COMBAT is a community enforcement group established to help in resolving issues of gender-based violence at the grassroot level.

It comprised seven (7) members in a group established in 12 communities in both the Nanumba North Municipality and Nanumba South District.

COMBAT is also an intervention initiated by ActionAid Ghana, Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit [DOVVSU] of the Ghana Police Service, CHRAJ and the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development.

The meeting was also part of the activities of celebrating of the 16 days of Activism of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Mrs Safura Abdallah, ActionAid's Project Officer for Promoting Opportunities for Women Empowerment and Rights, said it was necessary to establish COMBAT in the communities to help protect the rights of the women and girls.

She said COMBAT was to help victims of gender-based violence to know the mechanism to follow on reporting their cases to the right authorities for the necessary action to be taken.

She urged all citizens to take it up to themselves to help resolve or report cases of gender-based violence and abuses to help create a conducive and violence free society in the rural communities.

Mrs Augustina Yahaya, an official from DOVVSU said the establishment of COMBAT had helped to reduce the cases of gender-based violence recorded by the unit within the year.

She said issues of violence against women and girls had been reduced with the help of COMBAT members present in communities within Bimbila, who assisted in resolving most of the issues, such as teenage pregnancy, rape, physical abuses among others.

Mr Kalala Iddi Musah, an official from the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), said CHRAJ faced some challenges of evenly reaching out to all communities to resolve issues of violence, but with the establishment of the community watchdogs to help get easy access to such cases and resolve them amicably.

Mr David Yelabeyiani, an official from the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development acknowledged the effort of ActionAid for establishing COMBAT since it had helped victims to feel more comfortable to disclose their ordeal to COMBAT representatives who intend would help report cases to the institute for actions to be taken.