Mogadishu(SONNA)- A week-long Female Engagement Team course organized by United Kingdom Mission Support Team (UK-MST) and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to equip Somali and AMISOM female soldiers on how to engage with local communities in newly liberated areas concluded on Thursday in Mogadishu.
The 20 AMISOM and 12 Somalia National Army (SNA) and Somalia Police Force (SPF) female officers were drilled on civil-military coordination, Somali culture and context, gender perspectives in operations, combating and preventing conflict related sexual violence, sexual exploitation and handling of defectors.
HELPING WOMEN
Speaking at the closing ceremony, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Morton, Officer Commanding of UK-MST urged the newly trained officers to put their training to good use, especially in assisting female civilians within the Somali population.
“The hard work starts now. You have done the course, you now have the skills and it is now for you to go forward and actually talk to and engage with over 50 percent of the population that are female,” Lt. Col. Nick observed.
Maj. Pete Thompson, the UKMST Stabilization Advisor and the instructor of the course highlighted the need to engage with the local population to identify their needs.
“The aim of the course was to prepare students so that they can go out to the ground, and be able to engage with female and youth members of the Somali population, extract information and find out what the real need is from the female and the youth population so that we can do further development down the line,” Maj. Pete noted.
The UKMST works with AMISOM through targeted training and mentoring of AMISOM and Somali Security Forces as one way of achieving peace and stability in Somalia.
ENGAGING WITH POPULATION
Speaking at the end of the training, the AMISOM Police Gender Coordinator, Stella Sedame, said the training had equipped them with skills to deliver on their mandate of mentoring the Somali Police Force
“The training has helped us, the female engagement team, to assist our fellow Somali officers in engaging with the local population. We have built our knowledge, skills and capacity,” Sedame said.
Second Lieutenant Nasteha Hassan Ahmed of the Somali Police Force Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was full of praise for the training.
“The training on Somali culture has helped me to gain more insights and I believe it also benefited our AMISOM colleagues as they work to bring peace and stability in Somalia,” she added.
