Top cops in Ethiopia

A NUMBER of Zimbabwe Republic Police senior officers are in Ethiopia for an African Union (AU) conference that is deliberating on the role of the Standby Force and issues to guarantee peace and security on the continent.

Earlier this month, eight ZRP officers left the country for Malawi to take part in the Sadc Standby Force Command Post Exercise.

The high-profile command post exercise in Malawi, code-named “Exercise Umodzi”, will see all countries from SADC participating as a regional bloc in preparing for their African Union standby peacekeeping lead duties, which it assumes between January and June next year.

Acting Police Commissioner-General Levie Sibanda revealed this while addressing nine officers who recently returned from the United Nations peacekeeping operations in Darfur and 24 others who are set to leave the country for South Sudan and Abyei on a similar mission.

“All these efforts and many similar ones that were successfully undertaken before, point to the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s commitment and unbending fortitude to be an integral player and contributor to regional, continental and global peace,” he said.

“Zimbabwe is a peace loving nation and our citizens enjoy their rights and freedoms without fear hence we also wish that our fellow brothers and sisters from war-torn countries live in peace and harmony.

“In this regard during the Second United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit held in New York earlier this year, the Commissioner-General (Godwin Matanga) expressed his desire to the responsible authorities for the Zimbabwe Republic Police to significantly increase the number of police officers being seconded to peacekeeping duties.”

Acting Comm-Gen Sibanda said they had in the same connection been making efforts to strengthen their Formed Police Unit, which he was confident will be discharging UN peacekeeping duties, as well as related activities under the AU Standby Force and Sadc Standby Force in due course.

“In the same breadth, I would also want to see an all-female Formed Police Unit established soon,” he said.