8 July 2008
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) today began training some 200 gendarmes and police officers who will be tasked with protecting refugees and displaced people in the east of Chad.
Police officers with the UN mission, known as MINURCAT, are carrying out the programme, which aims to train 850 gendarmes and police officers by the end of September when they will form part of a new unit known as the Détachement Integré de Sécurité.
The training is part of a wider initiative to ensure the safety and security of an estimated 250,000 refugees and 180,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in the east of the country.
MINURCAT's role is to reinforce security, administration and the justice system to help create the conditions for refugees and IDPs to return voluntarily and safely to their homes. The selection and training of police officers, as well as the provision of advice and support, are part of the mission's mandate.
The mission was created last September to help protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid to thousands of people uprooted by insecurity in the northeast of the CAR and eastern Chad and in the neighbouring Darfur region of western Sudan.
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This training is coming bit too late. The fractions in e.g. Abeche are too wide and the forced recruitment in camps will continue as long as the Dafur issue dominates peace efforts. You simply can not make the billy-goat to the gardener...