Turkish instructors train Gambian police

By Mustapha K Darboe

BANJUL, Gambia (AA) - The Gambian police has concluded a two-week training with three Turkish instructors on public order management on Friday.

The 30 paramilitary officials who benefitted from the training were handed their certificates at the paramilitary headquarters in Kanifing Municipality.

This is the second batch being trained by Turkey.

The course on public order management was part of a series of trainings organized by the Turkish police since 2018.

The trainings, according to officials, were meant to prepare Gambian police in several areas including crowd control, VIP protection, statement taking, among others, ahead of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit due to be held in the Gambia in 2019.

Yankuba Sonko, a special adviser at Gambia’s Interior Ministry, said Turkey has been helping the country’s security forces in capacity building for over two decades now.

“Public order management in a democratic society is a very difficult task especially in these trying times of our young democracy,” said Sonko.

Omar Sey, spokesman of the OIC secretariat in Gambia, hailed Turkey for the support.

Ismail Sefa Yuceer, the Turkish ambassador to Gambia, has described as beneficial the partnership between the Turkish and Gambian police.

“What distinguished Turkish police from many is the variety of challenges they face… All the various units of the Turkish police are prepared to respond to all these various challenges…,” said Yuceer.