Kigali: Senior law enforcement officials from across Africa are gathering in Kigali from 5 to 7 February 2019 for the 24th INTERPOL African Regional Conference to discuss the regional security concerns in Africa including terrorism, trafficking in human beings and environmental crime.
In his address at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente stressed the need for cooperation and comprehensive anti-crime strategies to deal with growing threats of organized crimes facing Africa and other continents. The include recent series of terrorist attacks on innocent civilians, Human trafficking as well as Illicit financial flows out of Africa which, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), could be as much as 50 billion USD per year.
“To stop and prevent these threats, there is an urgent need for strong cooperation and comprehensive anti-crimes strategies among all countries. No single country can alone win this struggle. We need much stronger regional and international cooperation. I therefore urge all participants in this regional conference to use it as an opportunity to set up new strategies and enforce existing ones on how INTERPOL can better support our respective countries in preventing and fighting crimes” PM Ngirente said.
INTERPOL convenes regular regional conferences in Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia, bringing together police from across each region to share experiences and discuss ways to tackle common security issues.
The African Regional Conference brings together Heads of Police and police cooperation bodies in the region to discuss specific crime-related problems. (Fin)