As part of its activities to accompany local forces, the United Nations Police (UNPOL) of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), on 7 and 8 October 2015, carried out a joint exercise between UNOCI's Pakistani Contingent and Ivorian Gendarmes in San Pedro on democratic crowd control at the Gendarmerie Brigade. The exercise was part of preparations for the different phases of the electoral period.



After the going through the theoretic part of the training exercise, the gendarmes carried out joint exercises on crowd control with UNOCI forces on the different phases of the electoral period : before the election, during electoral campaign meetings, the start of the voting process and finally the announcement of the results and the reaction of the population.



« The aim of the trianing is to provide the gendarmes in San Pedro with the skills to control crowds that may disturb by using humane methods, » explained the chief og the UNPOL Training Cell in Abidjan, General Riadh Guellim. He said that with regard to maintaining order in Côte d'Ivoire, it is Ivorian forces who will be along the front line with UNOCI forces giving them assistance if they become overwhelmed by the crowds. The outline was carried out during the exercises with the help of Lieutenant Olivier Fideli, a French gendarme who is a trainer at the National Police School of Côte d'Ivoire.



At the end of the training, the representative of the Commander of the 5th legion of gendarmerie of San Pedro, the Squadron Chief Alain Camara thanked UNOCI officials for the initiative and the collaboration which is helping to strengthen operational capacity of his men at a time during which their skills would be required often.