Africa-Press – Tanzania. COLLABORATIVE efforts are needed to contain trans- border crimes which remain a challenge in most parts of the country, particularly in southern regions, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Sunday.
President Samia called upon the police force in collaboration with other security or- gans to jointly step-up actions to combat the transnational and cross-border crimes, which pose a huge security threat.
President Samia made the call at the graduation ceremony for the 748 police officers who successfully completed Gazetted Officer Course No 1 training held at the Police Academy at Kurasini in Dar es Salaam, on Sunday.
“It’s my hope you will continue to collaborate with other security organs to contain cross-border crimes,” she said.
“The skills you have acquired in the area of military and war arenas will help to boost your participation in dealing with trans-border crimes within the country,” President Samia added.
Common transnational and cross-border crimes include drug and human trafficking, illegal migration, money laundering, cyber-crime and motor vehicle theft.
She applauded the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr George Simbachawene for carrying out an exercise to collect and destroy illegal weapons, a move aimed to discourage their circulation within the country as well as contain trans-border crimes.
Although the exercise turned out to be successful, the President sent a wake-up call for the authorities to do more to mop up illegal weapons.
“If these illegal weapons continue to remain in the hands of the wrong people, even the tension among the public becomes high…let’s continue with the exercise of collecting the weapons,” she noted.
President Samia, on the other hand noted that although the crime situation in the country continued to improve, the progress is still not satisfactory, demanding more attention.
“Statistics show that the rate of crimes in Tanzania be- tween January and October, this year went down from 42,553 to 42,000 crimes recording a 1.3 per cent reduction.
“The recorded 1.3 per cent reduction is still not satisfactory; we need to do more to bring the criminality to an end.
Efforts have been undertaken to ensure the country is doing away with major crimes,” stated President Samia.
She underscored the need to put more emphasis on the fight against other crimes, in- cluding gender-based and chil- dren violence which has been left behind.
Other areas include acts of terrorism, human trafficking,illegal weapons, and cyber- crimes.
The president expressed the government’s commitment to continue improving the welfare of security and defence forces in the country through promotions and offering train- ing among other things.
Earlier on, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Simon Sirro pledged to collaborate with other security organs and the public to overcome crimes facing the country.
IGP Sirro revealed that in collaboration with local government authorities and com- munity security guards’ regular crackdowns are being carried out in the respective areas in dealing with crimes.
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