Forty-five Police officers from five Eastern Africa Standby Force member states and Denmark, yesterday, started a 10-day African Union Police Pre-deployment course at Police Training School (PTS) Gishari in Rwamagana District.

The course aims at equipping officers with concepts, skills and core values of peacekeeping.

While officially opening the course, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) in charge of Operations, Dan Munyuza said: "This course transforms professional police officers into competent peacekeepers; therefore, participants should be extra inquisitive in exploring the knowledge that will be imparted to them.”

"Officers earmarked for peacekeeping operations in African Union must be well trained to enable them manage any challenges they may encounter in mission areas,” he added.

He said that Rwanda National Police prioritised training because it believes continuous training produces significant results on the ground.

"RNP has put training at the forefront of its priorities to address most of the challenges related to policing. We always believe that, without effective training of police officers, we cannot achieve best performance and we cannot manage to use minimum resources in addressing emerging challenges,” he said.

Of recent, he noted, conflict management and resolution has greatly borrowed the impact of peacekeeping as means to maximise available scarce resources and mitigate conflicts on the continent.

Munyuza said such training will help to address emerging security challenges on the continent such as human trafficking.

Such crimes, he said, thrive in insecure and chaotic countries, and challenged participants to be catalysts in combating them.

"At the end of this course, you are expected to be competent in areas where you will be deployed, to address all hindrances to peace building in Africa,” DIGP Munyuza told course attendants.

The course was organised in partnership with EASF and Germany International Cooperation (GIZ).

Participating countries are Comoros, Denmark, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Rwanda.

It will cover aspects of AU and EASF common systems and how to address policing challenges in peacekeeping missions, including the emerging asymmetric threats.

ACP Kahsay Gebre Weldeslasie, the head of Police Component at EASF, said "EASF is cognisant of the best practices from Rwanda that have impacted on regional officers positively towards their professional journey.”

He singled out combating gender based violence as one of the areas where Rwanda National Police has excelled in peacekeeping.

"Our regional officers have been attending these activities and indeed they have been a value addition to their professionalism,” Weldeslasie said.

Silke Hampson, from GIZ, noted that "development is not about building roads but also peace and security to enable people live a prosperous life.”

The African Union Police Pre-deployment course is the first of its kind that is aligned with peacekeeping missions in Africa under the auspice of the African Union.

Similar United Nations trainings have previously been held in Rwanda.

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