The Acting Commissioner of Botswana Police Service (BPS) Mr. Phemelo Ramakorwane and the Inspector General of Rwanda National Police (RNP) Mr. Dan Munyuza recently held a bilateral meeting where they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Kigali, Rwanda to deepen cooperation in various policing disciplines.
The MoU is intended to formalise partnership in different areas of policing including capacity building and sharing of best practices. It also binds the two police organisations to collectively fight, among others, transnational organised crime, cybercrime, terrorism and human trafficking.
In his remarks, Mr Ramakorwane appreciated the commitment and invaluable contribution towards global peace and security by Botswana and Rwanda through their respective police organisations.
“This is a significant milestone and an important platform for effective tackling of transnational crime affecting not only our two countries but the region at large,” Mr Ramakorwane said.
He also said it was critical that the two police organisations take full advantage of training exchange programmes, best practice benchmarks, research and institutional capacity building, to ensure effective implementation of the MoU. Mr Ramakorwane further reaffirmed his commitment to the smooth implementation of all MoU objectives for mutual benefits.
During the week-long visit to Rwanda, Mr. Ramakorwane and his delegation visited various RNP training and operation facilities in Mayange, Gishari, Musanze and Rubavu districts to learn more about RNP’s services.
For his part, the Inspector General Munyuza said the bilateral meeting and the signed MoU were founded on friendly and excellent relationship between the Presidents of Botswana. He said the present security challenges can only be effectively dealt with when police services work together.
Mr. Munyuza further indicated that policing is faced with security threats of terrorism attacks in Cabo Delgado Mozambique, ADF of North Kivu in DR Congo, Al-Shabaab in Somalia and other groups in the region and the continent.
“This MoU is an opportunity for us to discuss effective ways in which we can cooperate even more closely in anti-terrorism operations,” Inspector General Munyuza said.
He was however confident that with the formalised partnership, BPS and RNP will greatly benefit through formal communication channels for efficient cooperation in different areas including training and exchange programmes.
