Twenty-four law enforcement and military officers completed a five-day training on physical security and stockpile management of weapons and ammunition at the Police Training School (PTS) Gishari in Rwamagana District.
The practical training conducted by Rwanda National Police (RNP) in partnership with the Regional Centre for Small Arms (RECSA), focused on arms handling and storage, physical security, arms marking, stockpile inventory, and emergency response.
The PTS Commandant, Commissioner of Police (CP) Robert Niyonshuti, while closing the training, said that it enhances stockpile management capacity for Rwanda security agencies.
“The stockpile management of weapons is very important as it helps to improve security, safety and accountability. Unsafe storage can result in the explosion of ordinance stocks killing and injuring many people as well as destroying costly facilities and equipment,” CP Niyonshuti said.
He urged the trainees to put the acquired skills and knowledge to effective use to add value to stockpile management.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Damas Gatare, the Director of Operations and Programmes at RECSA, said that one of the strategies to address the persisting proliferation of small arms in the region is to ensure the safety and security of stockpiles by setting a well-functioning management system of physical security and stockpiles of government weapons.
Article 6 of the Nairobi protocol stipulates that “parties undertake to establish and maintain complete inventories of small arms and light weapons held by security forces and other state bodies; to enhance their capacity to manage and maintain secure storage of state owned small arms and light weapons as well as ensuring strict national accountability and the effective tracing of all small arms and light weapons owned and distributed by the state.” (End)