SOMALIA: AMISOM police starts training 160 Somali police forces

Date: 
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Source: 
Press TV
Countries: 
Africa
Eastern Africa
Somalia
PeaceWomen Consolidated Themes: 
Reconstruction and Peacebuilding

The African Union Mission in Somalia Police component has officially began training security officers from the Somali police force. The two-week training course is being carried out at the General Kahiye Police Academy in Mogadishu where 30 male and 10 female officers will undergo intensive training on Criminal Investigation.

AMISOM Police plans on training 160 members of the Somali Police Force before the end of this year with the intent of filling a crucial gap in the Somali Police Force after many years of armed conflict. It also hopes that the training will improve the skills of the Somali Police so that they can be professional in keeping the people of Somalia safe and secure, with crimes professionally investigated.

Young Somali women have also joined the Somali police academy with an aim to ensure the security of citizens, a task they say the men were unable to achieve for long time. Women police have been seen on the Mogadishu streets manning the traffic, participating in security crackdown and at the same time joining their men colleagues in administering law and order the in the country's warton capital.

As a part of boosting the security situation in Mogadishu, the African Union has sent Police from several East and West African countries to boost the Somali Police and AU military in the fight against the Al-Shabaab who have been on the back foot in the past year.

Somali Security officers have in the past months embarked on a door to door search and seize operation throughout the entire 16 districts of Mogadishu arresting hundreds of people and confiscating weapons, assault rifles, hand grenades and improvised explosive devices. The security operations are meant to consolidate the security gains made by the Somali and AU military in the fight against the Al-Shabaab.

Somali security forces together with the recently incorporated AMISOM police have in the past months initiated a major crackdown to root out remnants of Al-Shabaab with the new post transition Somali government intensifying its crackdown following a spate of bombings and targeted killings. However the Al-Shabaab has vowed to continue with its guerilla campaign against the UN backed Somali government based here in Mogadishu.