Bunia, 5 February 2013 – Community police, a concept often misused in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but with no significant impact on the population, is undergoing a thorough review in Ituri district, Province Orientale. The Police component of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) is actively engaged in bringing back some meaning to this concept. In this context, an eight-week session of training of trainers was launched in Bunia, capital of the district, with the financial support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The objective is to train Congolese national police agents in Ituri on this concept, which is supposed to address the concerns of the population, keeping in mind that it should bring the police closer to the population in order to provide better protection for the population as well as public and private property.

The training started on 21 January 2013 with 15 participants from all over the district. The trained agents will eventually train their peers, thus creating a snowball effect. This will in the end provide some relief to a population suffering from many abuses in the hands of armed groups and, sometimes, men in uniform.

Amadou Maïga/ MONUSCO