AMISOM Police Officers Conclude Sexual and Gender Based Violence Training

A team of officers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Police unit have completed four days’ training on sexual and gender based violence.

The 4-days training covered different areas including understanding what constitutes sexual and gender based violence, the AMISOM code of conduct, cultural sensitivities and their impact on work by the mission among others.

The training was concluded last evening with a ceremony attended by AMISOM Deputy Police Commissioner Christine Alalo and AMISOM Police Chief of Staff Rex Dundun among others.

Speaking during the ceremony, Deputy Commissioner Christine Alalo underscored the need to understand cultural sensitivities in relation to gender roles and perceptions of sexual abuse. She challenged the officers to tackle the vice of abuse and pass on the knowledge acquired, during their mentorship of the Somali Police Force.

“Both men and women are affected but the majority are women and girls, yet these are the same people charged with developing the country. Majority of women are in the agricultural sector and if they are affected by SGBV, it leads first of all to HIV Aids, unwanted pregnancy, it leads to broken families. We are seeing street children everywhere, so it is a very serious issue that must be addressed,” she said.

The Deputy Police Commissioner added that “this is a very good training that we expect that when these people get out or the AMISOM Police gets out there to mentor their counterparts, they should be able to deliver and know that this is a crime that must be taken up very seriously. While conducting their duties, they should forget about issues of culture but address it as crime if it occurs. It must be also given priority like any other crime”.

Sergeant Winston Fillie, AMISOM Police team leader of the induction training unit noted that holding the training within the mission has facilitated an increased number of participants.

“For us the trainers, we feel happy because of conducting such training for the very first time here in Somalia. We want to believe that they will make good use of what they achieved here, when they go out in execution of their mandate, especially in working with the Somali Police Force so that they too will pass on the same information to the people,” said sergeant Fillie

One of the participants ASP Cecilia H. Appiah noted that the training was very helpful and will be rolled out to the SPF.

“This course has been very helpful to us as the participants and it is our hope that we will pass on the knowledge to our Somali colleagues as part of the mentorship program. As we have done with community policing, we will organize sexual and gender based exploitation forums and invite community members to share this knowledge with them,” said Cecilia.