Since its initial deployment in the nation in 2009, the African Union peacekeeping operation in Somalia has educated and supervised 8,167 Somali police officers, according to a senior official.
Rex Dundun, the police chief of staff for the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), claimed that the recruited and trained police personnel are now upholding the law in sections of the nation that have been freed from al-Shabab rule.
“We don’t have much time to train the Somalian police to manage the country’s internal security. A race against time is underway “In a statement released on Thursday night in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, Dundun claimed.
By December 2024, the Somali Security Forces (SSF) are expected to take over the AU mission’s security duties.
The Somali police officers who have received training and mentoring are from the Southwest, Hirshabelle, and Jubaland, including Mogadishu.
Aspects including management, electoral security, human rights, traffic management, community policing, and the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence are included in the training, according to Dundun.
The AU official claimed that as part of its infrastructure improvement plan, the ATMIS Police have built, rebuilt, and outfitted roughly 20 police stations.
The creation of specialist desks at police stations and the creation of police human resource databases at the federal and state levels, according to Dundun, have all been made possible by the AU Police.
He said that as part of the operational support for the polls, the AU Police sent personnel to places where there was no police presence, like Barawe, Garbaharey, and Dhusamareb.
By December 2024, the Somali Police Force should be able to take control of the country’s internal security, according to Dundun.
A 32,000-person police force was suggested by the National Security Architecture (NSA), which was approved in 2017 by the federal member states and the government.
According to the NSA, Somalia wants to hire enough police officers to secure liberated areas and urban areas in addition to maintaining law and order.
The Somali Police Force is required to receive training, on-the-job mentorship, and advise from ATMIS Police.
Additionally, the training emphasises capacity building and finding new officers to replace the more experienced ones.