Africa-Press – Mozambique. A capacity building activity was conducted to 26 police officers of Cabo Delgado Province, from the 14th to the 16th of December. This activity was held in straight coordination with IOM – the UN Migration Agency in Mozambique, the Central and Provincial Community Policing Department and the Provincial Police Command of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM). The implementation districts of the activity are Pemba, Metuge, Mecufi, Ancuabe, Chiure, Balama and Namuno in Cabo Delgado province and it aims at ensuring better collaboration with the communities in monitoring and addressing security concerns.
This training inaugurates the first of multiple capacity building activities to be conducted throughout year 2022 by IOM in collaboration with the PRM, to strengthen the capacities of active police officers in Cabo Delgado, to positively engage with communities. Other activities include strengthening the Police training curriculum, conducting trainings of trainers, leadership trainings, and on the job mentoring to foster the relationships between Police and communities.
“I would like to thank IOM for the continuous support. In Mozambique, community policing has changed over time. Decades ago, we had Vigilance Groups and today we have Community Safety Councils at the community level. As police officers we cannot be at all places at all times. However, the community is always there. Thus, relying on the communities to get information on security matters is key in our work. We are happy to see the municipal police, traffic police and other areas of the police present in this training. We hope you can make the most of this training to better implement your activities in the districts” said the Vicente Dino Chicote, Provincial Police Commander for Cabo Delgado.
In parallel to these interventions IOM is 1) strengthening Community Safety Councils (CSCs) as a key link between communities and law enforcement; 2) encouraging positive interactions between communities and police through community infrastructure projects; and 3) building civilian friendly spaces in police stations. These activities will increase trust and confidence of communities in the Police; will make available for the community’s appropriate communication mechanisms to exchange information impacting community security through CSCs; and will allow Police officers to interact positively, building stronger relationships with communities to identify and resolve security-related issues.
In this way the communities in Cabo Delgado will be more stable, secure, and resilient to violence, with a positive impact on communities’ displacement.
These interventions, are part of the project “Strengthening community security and stability in communities affected by violence in the Northern Region of Mozambique through police capacity building and community engagement” financed by the European Union (EU) with 4 million EUR, and of the project “Strengthening Community Engagement and Policing (CEP) and Integrated Border Management (IBM) in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, and Mtwara, United Republic of Tanzania” financed by the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) with 4.2 million EUR.
“We aim to support PRM in Cabo Delgado to comprehensively master key concepts of community policing and discuss appropriate mechanisms to address citizens in their day-to-day work. Hopefully, this will create positive engagement and long-lasting collaboration between Police and Community Safety Councils which in turn will contribute to strengthen the links between communities and law enforcement actors, allowing communities to be more engaged in community security, and more resilient to security threats.” said Derya Ferhat Acting Head of Sub-Office at IOM Pemba.
Since 2019, IOM is supporting the Government of Mozambique to increase cooperation and trust between communities and law enforcement through outreach, enhanced information sharing and joint problem solving, with the overarching goal of reducing displacement by contributing to peace and stability.
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