Gambia Police Force carries out crisis management simulation exercise
The Gambia Police Force in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) and the European Unionon Tuesday undertook a daylong simulation exercise on crisis management with other relevant stakeholders with the aim to engage the GPF, assessing its capacity to manage crisis at different levels of command.
The objectives of the exerciseincludes to enhance command and control and strengthen leadership and decision-making, promote synergy and partnership with stakeholders, including local government authority, oversight institutions and civil society organizations, to improve crisis management in the Gambia Police Force and to optimise use ad formalization of key components of the Police Doctrine.
The exercise seeks to strengthen the participants’ ability to respond to a crisis management situation, using ‘land dispute’ as a scenario, but building on the broader community, regional and national security in line with the Crisis Management Manual and Police Doctrine.
The simulation exercise held at the SDKJ Conference Centre in Kololi was in the form of a Visual Interactive Exercise, starting with a low-level land dispute between two neighbouring villages, escalating to various levels of conflict to a State of Emergency and finally de-escalation and community tranquillity.
In his remarks, Abubakarr SuleimanJeng, National Security Adviser noted that there is an ongoing Security Sector Reform (SSR) program undertaken by the government in rebuilding its national security institutions’ capabilities towards contributing to global peace and security and that the Gambia government is committed to the promotion of culture of tolerance, good governance, rule of law and human rights.
He noted that since the introduction of the SSR program in the Gambia in 2017, their bilateral partners have continued to support the process which sets out the parameters necessary to enable the fulfilment of legitimate security functions through reforms, restructuring and institutional development.
He affirmed that significant level of reforms activities has been achieved in terms of capacity building and institutional development of security services, and that the SSR is on course and the government is determined to carry the process to a logical end to achieve a well-defined security architecture for the country.
Ken Isaac-DCAF’s head of office in Banjul said that in DCAF support to crisis management, leadership, command, control and the ability to respond to a crisis are key and critical components of the current project DCAF is implementing in support of SSR which is funded by the EU.
He noted that they adjusted their program so that the crisis management training achieved was completed in advance of the 2021/2022 election campaigns, thereby providing support to the GPF and partner agencies where they could be of most assistance.
