Goma, 15 March 2011 – Fifty police officers who were being trained in Kapalata, Oriental province, were redeployed in North Kivu province following their return to Goma on 15 March. This last group concludes a one-year training programme initiated in the province by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO).

The 50 officers are the third and last batch of 486 police elements from North Kivu to receive the six-month training, which was launched in March 2010. The majority of the trainees were drawn from former armed groups. The training focused on public order and security techniques around the election period, as well as notions of international law, and protection of civilians, particularly of women and children.

This training was designed in the framework of the Stabilization Programme for Areas Emerging from Conflict in eastern DRC, widely known as STAREC.

Since mid-2010, a total of 1,500 police officers from former armed groups have received short-term training at Munigi center, a dozen kilometers from Goma, in the territory of Nyiragongo.

Sy Koumbo Gali/ MONUSCO