The four-week counter terrorism course for Ethiopian law enforcement officials and officers carried out by the IGAD Capacity Building Program against Terrorism (ICPAT) was concluded today. The course was attended by 25 law enforcement officials from the Federal Police and police forces from a number of regional states and Addis Ababa. It was held at the Ethiopian Police University College in Sendaffa.

The closing ceremony was attended by Director General Workineh Gebeyehu of the Federal Police Commission, and he handed out the certificates to the participants.

He stressed the importance of the participants passing the information and experiences received in the course to others in the Force as the course was designed to be for the “Training of Trainers”. The four-week course covered such subjects as the causes of terrorism, migration and transnational crime, international conventions, community policing, mutual legal assistance, crisis management, border security management, terrorist financing and money laundering, role of INTERPOL, crime scene management, respect for human rights, and alternate strategies to resist terrorism.

Instruction was provided by staff members of ICPAT, International Organization for Migration, INTERPOL, London Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), Institute for Security Studies, and experts from Ethiopia, Uganda and the UK.

ICPAT disclosed that the course has been carried out in Uganda, Sudan, and for Somalia up to now. In the future the course is expected to be provided to Kenya and Djibouti. The counter terrorism course was developed by ICPAT in cooperation with the East African Police Chiefs Coordination Organization (EAPCCO)