With the support of MONUSCO, UNMAS trained FARDC and PNC units on the management of arms and ammunition storages at the Mugunga Police School, 14 kilometres from Goma city in North Kivu.
The official graduation ceremony took place on Friday 14 June 2019 in the presence of the Mayor of Goma City and the military and police authorities of North Kivu Province. The aim of the weapons storekeeper training is for officers understand international standards on the physical security of Small Arms Light Weapons (SALW) storage, to understand and apply the concepts of human and physical security related to the proliferation of SALW. The ammunition storekeeper level trains technicians to carry out basic storage operations, to record the entries and exits of ammunition by recording them on the accounting documents and to implement the rules of the ammunition security storages.
In his speech, the UNMAS SALW project manager, Mr. Didier Bastien, emphasized that “UNMAS in the DRC contributes to improving the management, storage and security of weapons and ammunition by the relevant national institutions and security services in the provinces through the installation of innovative storage solutions to secure arms and ammunition held by the Congolese State”.
The Mayor of the city of Goma congratulated the weapons and ammunition storekeeper trained officers for the commitment they demonstrated during the training sessions and encouraged them to apply in their daily work the valuable knowledge they acquired from this training with the greatest professionalism.
Since 2017, UNMAS secured 20,373 weapons belonging to the national security forces through the installation of 897 weapon safes in FARDC and PNC units. UNMAS also built 8 armories and trained more than 600 security officers up to date.