Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dan Munyuza is in Malawi where he held a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Dr. George Kainja as the two police institutions continued to reinforce their cooperation and to explore more areas of partnership against transnational organized crimes.
The bilateral visit is in the framework of the cooperation pact signed between Rwanda National Police (RNP) and Malawi Police Service (MPS) in 2019, which formalized mutual interests in various disciplines of policing such as joint training, joint operations, tracking and exchange of criminals, combating terrorism, drug trafficking, cybercrimes, information sharing on fugitives and other security related matters. It also followed a similar bilateral meeting held in Kigali last month.
IGP Munyuza noted that such engagements reflect “strong relationship and commitment” to further strengthen bilateral security cooperation between Rwanda and Malawi police institutions.
“In the face of prevailing global and regional security threats, we value Malawi’s efforts on bilateral and multilateral stages to seek sustainable solution to security challenges in the region and beyond,” IGP Munyuza said.
During the bilateral meeting, the two Police institutions also discussed, among others, training and sharing expertize, security challenges and transnational crimes in the two countries, region, and the continent at large.
RNP has offered slots at the National Police College (NPC) in Musanze District for Malawi Police Service.
IGP Munyuza said that Rwanda values African countries’ resolve to end destabilizing negative forces on the continent, particularly violent extremism.
He observed that strong foundation for cooperation has well been laid and that it is now the time to “move from commitment to action.”
This, he said, is the right moment to meet because, like in other parts of the world, the East and the Southern Africa regions are threatened by the growing radical terrorist groups operating and causing havoc in the region.
“We are happy that today, we re-emphasized and re-committed ourselves to working more closely together especially in training in all our training schools and colleges. It is our resolve and shared belief that in this globalized era, cooperation is inevitable to deal with transnational and organized crimes such as terrorism and cybercrimes affecting our continent.”
He reiterated Rwanda’s readiness to walk the joint policing journey.
IGP Kainja, on his part, said that lessons learnt during his visit to Rwanda last month, will be implemented to improve all areas of service provision in the Malawi Police Service.
“In our meeting in Rwanda, we expressed strong commitment to making cooperation between our two police organizations work through action. We remain resolute to that thinking. Your visit to our country is part of that strong commitment as it provides an opportunity for updating each other on recent developments in our countries and the region as a whole” Dr. Kainja said.
The Memorandum of Understanding, he added, provides a road map for cooperation and realities on the ground and informs joint priorities.
During the last meeting in Kigali, the two Police institutions agreed to hold regular engagements at operational levels to develop and implement safety and security measures.
“Meetings and capacity building alone will not defeat contemporary policing challenges if there is no continuous information and intelligence sharing.
Our two organisations should use all available means to ensure that there is no impediment to timely information and intelligence sharing. This is even more important in the context of Islamic insurgency terrorizing our neighbor, Mozambique,” Dr. Kainja emphasized.
He added that Malawi Government and the Malawi Police Service in particular will ensure that all efforts to defeat this insurgency are supported.(End)