Police chiefs call for pan-African cooperation to fight crime

World Today

African police chiefs

Police chiefs from across Africa are uniting to combat transnational crime. The officials are meeting in Uganda to coordinate ways to share information and rapidly deploy forces to conflict regions. CCTV America’s Isabel Nakirya reports.

The police chiefs say crimes increasingly crosses borders and enhanced coordination from multiple countries is needed to combat and prevent such acts. In February 2014, they united to create the African Police or AFRIPOL that will form a platform under which member countries will be able to share information on how to deal with criminal gangs. The African police organization will also have the capacity to coordinate the rapid deployment of forces to conflict affected areas.

Currently, most African countries have regional bodies that bring together heads of police in different regions, but law enforcement leaders say it’s not enough. The over 30 police chiefs singled out crimes like terrorism, illicit arms tradimg, trafficking of humans and drugs, and car-jacking as issues that require urgent cross-border cooperation.

The East African region has in the recent past been a target of the terrorist group al-Shabaab, and many African countries are used as conduits for trafficking of drugs to Asian nations.