About 100 police officers from Kigali City yesterday completed a 10-day training on Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response.

The ceremony to mark the end of the training was held at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters in Kacyiru and presided over by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Emmanuel Butera.

The officers include those in community policing and judicial police officers, most of them female.

Butera appealed to the officers to use the knowledge acquired to crack down on GBV crimes which are currently rampant.

"The knowledge you acquired here should have a positive impact on crime prevention in your respective postings,” Butera said, adding that this might not be achieved in one day.

"But individual commitment by you can cause big changes in the shortest time,” he added.

He thanked the UN body in charge of women promotion, UNIFEM, for funding the training, saying that this will boost the country’s commitment to enhance capacity within the National Police force in fighting GBV.

Rose Rwabuhihi, UNIFEM officer for the Central African region and senior programme specialist, urged the officers to provide rapid response and help those who suffer from GBV.

"The issue of GBV should not be a family matter, but a security issue. Many women have been victims of the vice in that way. There is need for capacity building in police to enable officers handle such cases,” she said.

UNIFEM is also currently training over 74,000 community workers in community policing to partner with police curb down GBV crimes.

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