Police training contributes to stabilisation in terror-ridden Sahel region
Insecurity and transnational crime remain major threats in the Sahel region. The ongoing challenges call for major stabilisation and security efforts. Supported by the Institute, the police schools of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have become powerful human rights defenders, contributing to making the police a service for the population.
Strenthening regional network of police schools
Regionally, the police schools meet in the network POLI.DH (Policing and Human Rights in Africa) established with the Institute’s support, to share good practices on how to teach human rights and ensure high human rights standards in police work. In 2018 the police schools of Mauritania and Chad joined the network, which now encompasses the whole area of the G5 Sahel Joint Force, a regional force that jointly fights terrorism in the region.
In 2018, as part of Denmark’s regional stabilisation programme in the Sahel, 1,800 police officers in the most insecure region of Burkina Faso received human rights training based on tools developed by the National Police School with support from the Institute. In Mali, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA) conducted human rights training of over 1,000 police cadets and officers in 2018, also using tools developed by the National Police School of Mali itself. Development of customised training tools in human rights is a key feature of the partnership between the Institute and the police schools. Since the beginning of the partnership in Niger almost 20 years ago, ten thousand police officers have been trained in the human rights curriculum.
Increased trust between the police and the population
This has led to increased trust between population and police, which plays a key role in the fight against terrorism. Without trust the population might not consider telling the police when they observe anything unusual that requires investigation. Furthermore, studies have indicated that young people in the Sahel region have been radicalised as a result of violations by the security forces. Trust and collaboration between the local population and the police are thus important to mitigate radicalisation.
A survey conducted by the pan-African research network Afrobarometer indicates that this has contributed to increasing the population’s trust in the police. As much as 86 per cent of the population in Niger now trust the police. In some of the neighbouring countries, where human rights have not been integrated into the curriculum at the police schools and are not anchored in the authorities, the percentage of the population that trusts the police is significantly lower.