Over 30 senior officers from 10 ECCAS countries started meeting in Yaounde on May 26, 2014.
The trend of events in Africa marked by the upsurge in insecurity and instability has prompted the International School for Security Forces (EIFORCES) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to tackle the threat with tact and professionalism. Over 30 senior officers, comprising gendarmes and police, alongside planners and decision-makers started meeting in Yaounde yesterday May 26, 2014, to receive high-level training on multidimensional peace operations.
The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bokam, sitting in for the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defence, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, told the participants from 10 ECCAS countries that the Central African Sub-region and the continent were living in an era of security turbulence and there was need for able human resources and finances to keep the insurgency at bay. He cautioned participants to tactfully and carefully come up with short and long-term strategies that will help stem insurrectionary operations.
He said; “We need to have specialised teams of experts ready to consolidate our virtues of peace and stability and also to take it to the entire sub-region and continent.” EIFORCES with its expertise, he said, was out for peacekeeping missions in Cameroon and elsewhere on the continent. The increasing complexity and diversity of attacks needed greater synergy between the actors involved in peacekeeping and peace building.
According to Réal Romauld Mbida, Chief of Service for Training at ECCAS-COPAX, mastering the gimmicks of conflict prevention was primary. He said peacekeeping operatives must be well trained as to respond to the exigencies of the time. The Director General of EIFORCES, Brigadier General Mohamadou Hamadicko said given the considerable challenges facing peacekeeping operations in the sub-region and continent, improved strategic oversight was imperative and EIFORCES was competent enough to train officials from around the continent on peacekeeping and building. He reiterated the commitment of ECCAS/EIFORCES, with the support of the African Union and European Union to capacity-building for peacekeeping. The two-week international training ends on June 8, 2014.
