The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Dan Munyuza is in Malawi where he held discussions with his counterpart Dr. George Kainja, as the two forces re-commit to reinforce their cooperation and explore more areas of partnership against transnational organised crimes.
The visit is in line with previous cooperation pacts signed mutually by both countries, according to a statement released by the Rwanda National Police on Monday, July 26.
RNP and Malawi Police Service mutually co-operate in various disciplines including, joint training, joint operations, tracking and exchange of criminals.
Other areas of interest include, combating terrorism, drug trafficking, cybercrimes, information sharing on fugitives among others.
"In the face of prevailing global and regional security threats, we value Malawi’s efforts on bilateral and multilateral stages to seek sustainable solution to security challenges in the region and beyond," IGP Munyuza said.
During the meeting, officials highlighted on having discussed others areas, namely; training and sharing expertise, security challenges and transnational crimes in the two countries, region, and the continent at large.
Rwanda ready to walk joint policing journey
Previously, RNP has offered slots at the National Police College (NPC) in Musanze District for Malawi Police Service.
According to IGP Munyuza, the government values African countries' resolve to end destabilising negative forces on the continent, particularly violent extremism.
He, however, observed that strong foundation for cooperation has well been laid and that it is now the time to "move from commitment to action."
This, he said, is the right moment to meet because, like in other parts of the world, the East and the Southern Africa regions are threatened by the growing radical terrorist groups operating and causing havoc in the region.
"We are happy that today, we re-emphasized and re-committed ourselves to working more closely together especially in training in all our training schools and colleges."
He added, "It is our resolve and shared belief that in this globalized era, cooperation is inevitable to deal with transnational and organized crimes such as terrorism and cybercrimes affecting our continent."
Munyuza also reiterated Rwanda's readiness to walk the joint policing journey.
IGP Kainja, who has last visited Rwanda in May, said that lessons learnt during his visit will be implemented to improve all areas of service provision in the Malawi Police Service.
"In our meeting in Rwanda, we expressed strong commitment to making cooperation between our two police organizations work through action."
"We remain resolute to that thinking. Your visit to our country is part of that strong commitment as it provides an opportunity for updating each other on recent developments in our countries and the region as a whole" Dr. Kainja said.
During the last meeting in Kigali, the two Police institutions agreed to hold regular engagements at operational levels to develop and implement safety and security measures.
"Meetings and capacity building alone will not defeat contemporary policing challenges if there is no continuous information and intelligence sharing."
Therefore, "We should, both, use all available means to ensure that there is no impediment to timely information and intelligence sharing. This is even more important in the context of Islamic insurgency terrorizing our neighbour, Mozambique," Dr. Kainja emphasized.
He added that Malawi Government and the Malawi Police Service, in particular, will ensure that all efforts to defeat this insurgency are supported.