El-Fashir, September 26(Darfur24)The Civilian Protection Force in Darfur, on Sunday, embarked on a training course in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, within the framework of the training plan set by the Joint Higher Military Committee for Security Arrangements.
The beginning of the training course was attended by executive and judicial officials, leaders of government forces and UNITAMS, as well as members of the Permanent Ceasefire Commission and representatives of armed struggle movements, international agencies and organizations.
Last July, the first batch of two thousand soldiers from the armed struggle movements graduated to join the Civilian Protection Force, which will be formed later.
The Sudan News Agency quoted the Secretary-General of the Government of North Darfur, Al-Hafiz Bakhit Mohamed, as saying that the first training course for employees of the armed struggle forces.
The Juba Peace Agreement, which was signed in October 2020, provided for the formation of a joint force of 16,000 soldiers from the forces of the signatory movements to peace and government forces to carry out the tasks of protecting civilians in Darfur.
Last August, the UNAMS mission organized a training course for the police forces concerned with the protection of civilians, less than a month after the graduation of the employees of the movements participating in these forces.
Mubarak Bakhit, a member of the Joint Higher Military Committee for Security Arrangements, said that the committee has been working over the past months to prepare for the implementation of training courses for the joint force to protect civilians so that it can carry out the tasks that were performed by the UNAMID forces.
Bakhit said that the course will last for three weeks, during which doses will be given on the concept of security arrangements, Sudanese military law, investigation and preventive monitoring, team building, the experience of a ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains, enlightenment on the Juba Peace Agreement, as well as the process of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of combatants.
In addition to giving lectures on the concept of the responsibility to protect civilians, the relationship between the military and civilians, the protection of civilians from the perspective of the United Nations, and the Juba Peace Agreement.
He explained that leaders from the Joint Higher Military Committee for Security Arrangements, the Darfur Track, and the African Center for Governance and Democratic Transition, in coordination with the Nimeiri Military Academy, UN organizations, the Red Cross and the UNITAMS mission, will participate in the training.