A two-week intensive pre-deployment training for Darfur peace keeping operations, conducted by the Swedish Training team, comprising 7 police officers, led by Inspector Hakan Svedberg, is currently undergoing for personnel of The Gambia police force, at the police Academy in Yundum.

According to a press release from the Gambia police force, the two-week generic police training for peace keeping operations is meant to prepare police officers for assignment in the integrated peace keeping missions in Darfur, scheduled to take place from the 12th - 25th January, 2009.

"This training programme is the third of its kind to be conducted by the Swedish training team. Some Gambian police officers have also benefited from the same training programme in Sweden", the release added. "In the same vein, ten police officers to be deployed to Darfur, will travel to Sweden to attend a similar pre-deployment training after the completion of this ongoing training.

The areas to be covered during this training will include human rights and international primary standard, code of conduct of peace keepers, cultural differences and social behaviour aspect of police mandate in Darfur, and safety and security and stress management. The training will go a long way in preparing the police officers for a challenging task ahead", the release concluded.