“SL Police is a shining example in Africa”-AMISOM Police Commissioner

Awoko
Tuesday, March 05, 2013

advertisements

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Police Commissioner Benson Oyo-Nyeko says the “Sierra Leone Police is a shining example in Africa, in terms of their performance in AMISOM”.

Major General Dr Sharif Sekluna Maye, Somali Police Commissioner also said the Sierra Leone Police is one of the best in Africa, in terms of performance at the African Union Mission in Somalia.
Major-General Dr. Sharif Sekluna Maye, Somalia Police Commissioner and team from AMISOM and Somalia Police Force (SPF) were in Sierra Leone last week on a study tour to learn best policing practices.

Addressing a news conference on Friday at the Police headquarters, the AMISOM Police Commissioner Benson Oyo-Nyeko said AMISOM is a mission operated by the African Union and established in 2007 to respond to the crisis in Somalia.

He added that the war in Somalia and Sierra Leone started in 1991, but 22 years down the road, Somalia is still in war, adding that a lot of interventions were made by two UN Missions, but they did not succeed.

Nyeko said that since 2007, when AMISOM came in, a lot of changes and improvement have taken place and a number of countries have deployed their officers in Somalia.
“The Mission, since its deployment in 2000 has made a lot of achievements.
It has been able to recover substantial portions of territories that were in the hands of the Al-Shabab”, he said.

All this credit, he said, goes to the Member states because the AU relies on its Member States, adding that one of the Member States which has been very instrumental is Sierra Leone.

AMISOM Commissioner said Sierra Leone Police (SLP) was the first to deploy officers at a time when the situation was bad, saying that despite the security challenges, the Government of Sierra Leone sent police officers who went there and performed exemplary well.

“That is one of the reasons that we as AMISOM and SPF considering our common history, decided to come to Sierra Leone and share with them, experiences that they have gone through to make great strides in Sierra Leone. We are so proud of this”.

“We are here to share experience and learn best practices and we have achieved what we want”, adding that the SLP has been open to us, they have been frank and we are satisfied and confident that when we go back, we shall be able to use this knowledge and information that we got to improve our situation in Somalia.

The SPF Commissione, Major- General Dr. Maye said that it has been proved that the Somalia police was the best in Africa, but unfortunately when the war started in Somalia, the Police was destroyed and now we are on the way to rebuild and reform the Police.

He said to maintain law and order in Somalia was not easy as it came through joint venture with AMISOM, with the Sierra Leone Police having the highest officers.

Dr Maye said “we are here for the development Sierra Leone has made after the war. We want to do a case study and after that we start the reforming in other to maintain law and order.
He said the areas they visited gave them a lot of advantages, especially when they visited the Police Training School at Hastings.

The Police Commissioner reiterated that they would like the Sierra Leone Police Officers to train the Somalia Police officers and asked that the SLP increase the number of police officers in AMISON.

The Deputy Inspector-General of the Sierra Leone Police, Richard Moigbe said that the objectives of the visit are: to share experiences with Somalia Police leadership on reform process and the intricacies associated with it, which includes but not limited to political will of the government, policy statement of the government with regards the desired role of the Police.

Observe and learn various Police programs and activities implemented during the reform process. Expose the Police leadership on policing best practices in terms of human resource, administrative and financial guidelines and standards in all areas adopted by SLP during the reform process.

Moigbe said the objectives also includes to lay the foundation on the importance of reforming SPF in terms of vetting of the personnel, revisiting the Police Act, reforming the organizational and ranking structures of the Somalia Police.

Home
Email

Hiiraan Online