The Uganda Police Force and the Rwanda National Police Forces yesterday strengthened their bilateral cooperation to combat cross-border and transnational crimes.
In a meeting at Lake View Hotel in Mbarara on Thursday, the Commissioner General RNP Emmanuel K. Gasana and his Ugandan counterpart Gen Kale Kayihura committed to boost the fight against drug trafficking, terrorism, cyber-crime and human trafficking, through best practices sharing and capacity building in the two neighboring countries.
Kayihura stated that mutual security interests and information sharing to strengthen the mechanism have been on as part of the continuing efforts to resolve crime in Uganda and Rwanda.
He said following the memorandum of understanding of 13th October 2006 between the two police forces, they have tremendously reduced crimes of terrorism and trafficking in both Rwanda and Uganda.
He said the security of one country cannot be guaranteed if it’s not tied with that of another country.
The IGP urged senior police officers on both sides, after the meeting, to put to use what was discussed, stressing that implementation of resolutions still remains a challenge.
On his part, Gasana expressed hope that the discussions in such bilateral meetings will translate into “better training, detecting and detaining the criminals in both countries.”
Emmanuel said that crimes today are “modern” and called senior police officers in both countries to “jointly emphasize modern and specialized training to deal with modern crimes like cyber related crimes, organized crimes and terror.”
The IGPs together with senior police officers made many resolutions including twining, enhancement security along the border and the northern corridor.
The next meeting which will take place in Rwanda in January 2017 on a date that will be agreed upon by the IGPs.