UN Helping Train Dr Congo Police on Security in Mining Areas

New York, Dec 16 2010 1:10PM

UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are helping train national police officers to secure trade centres in the mineral-rich Kivu provinces in the country’s east.

The absence of trained officers has led to a serious loss of revenue for the DRC authorities, both at provincial and national levels. It is hoped that the training will eventually contribute to resolving conflicts in Africa’s volatile Great Lakes region in general and the eastern DRC in particular.

The three-week training by the police unit of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the country’s Provincial Division of Mines brought together 40 police officers, 24 from North Kivu and 16 from South Kivu, in the city of Bukavu in late November.

The officers received training on capacity-building and the role they ought to play as police officers in the country’s minerals mining region. Lessons focused on self-defence, intervention tactics, human rights and the illegal exploitation of natural resources.

Funded by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the training fell within MONUSCO’s responsibilities as mandated by the Security Council’s Resolution 1925, which requested that the mission assist the DRC authorities in fighting the illegal exploitation of its natural resources and to strengthen its capacity in that respect.

ENDS

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