Thirty Police officers on Tuesday, July 6, started a three-week motorbike riding course at the Police Training School (PTS) Gishali in Rwamagana District. The training is conducted by Rwanda National Police (RNP) in partnership with Carabinieri—the Italy Police. Trainees were drawn from Traffic and Road Safety (TRS) department, VIP Protection Unit, and Police Disciplinary Unit (DPU). While opening the course, PTS Commandant, Commissioner of Police Robert Niyonshuti, commended the existing relations between RNP and Carabinieri. He added that capacity building is one of the key priorities of RNP to have well-trained and equipped officers as one of the requirements to ensure safety including road security. “Motorbikes are considered as an important asset in maintaining road safety as they are easy to maneuver in road traffic congestion, public event management, dignitary escorts, ceremonial duties and speed, and traffic offence patrol,” Niyonshuti said. He thanked Carabinieri for availing trainers to facilitate the course despite the existing movement restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Brigadier General Stefano Dragani, the Carabinieri Liaison Officer to Rwanda said the course was organized to improve the trainees’ capabilities in fulfilling their tasks. “This course is one of the pacts of the memorandum of understanding signed between Carabinieri Coops and Rwanda National Police, and the instructors are experts from the department of training,” Brig. General Dragani said. He applauded the existing collaboration between Italy and the Government of Rwanda and pledged continued partnership, particularly in security-related matters. This is the third intake of the Motorbike Riding course conducted in the framework of the cooperation pact signed between Rwanda National Police and Carabinieri in 2017. The course covers various aspects of traffic including acceleration, deceleration and emergency breaking; techniques to be used in case of fall from the motorbike, control of the vehicle in emergency and search techniques. The MoU elaboration cooperation in the priority fields of counter-terrorism, public order management, traffic and road safety, and Peace Support Operations. Other areas include aviation security, helicopter operations and cybercrime investigations, environmental crime investigation and exchange of experts in various policing disciplines. Under this partnership framework, at least 422 Rwandan Police officers have been trained in various policing disciplines such as first responders’ course, aviation security, defensive driving course, public order management, environmental security training, special forces Training and FPU Training of Trainers. Meanwhile, on Monday, July 5, the Carabinieri trainers visited Kigali Memorial Centre where they laid wreaths to pay tribute to more than one million Rwandans killed in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
