More than 500 Congolese police officers have received training in ensuring security for upcoming local, urban and municipal elections, the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) announced today.

In the latest round of instruction, the UN mission (MONUC) and the Congolese National Police (PNC) trained 555 officers in the town of Kisangani last week.

MONUC reported that it has now trained some 6,965 Congolese policemen in several towns across the DRC, and plans on extending the programme to over 76,000 personnel in total.

There are three separate courses used for training different categories of policemen:

the management of queues in front of polling stations, intervention and arrest for police in charge of voting station security; teaching personnel working in the area of information gathering; and evacuation preparedness for reserve policemen, MONUC said.

Between 2005 and 2007, MONUC police trained PNC personnel who successfully ensured the security of the presidential and parliamentary elections in the DRC monitored by the UN.