Sudan / Arrival of Jordanian Formed Police Unit (FPU) to Darfur
EL FASHER (DARFUR), Sudan, August 25, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The main group of the first Jordanian Formed Police Unit (FPU) consisting of 100 officers arrived in El Fasher today to begin work with the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). A second group consisting of 180 Jordanian officers will arrive tomorrow. The Jordanian FPUs will be deployed in El Fasher city and Kabkabiya town in North Darfur.
These officers were preceded, on 19 August, by an advance party of twenty Jordanian Police Advisors tasked with assisting in the preparations of the facilities earmarked for the Unit at UNAMID and the coordination of the logistics of the contingent’s owned equipment (COE).
Whereas Police Advisors are unarmed civilian police officers who are tasked to conduct patrols, investigate incidents, monitor reports, conduct community policing in Darfur Internally Displaced Persons Camps as well as training, UNAMID FPUs are specialized, self-sufficient and fully mobile rapid reaction police units, entirely composed of police officers from a single contingent, with expertise in crowd-management and other police tactical operations.
The FPUs may be called upon to engage in high risk assignments and the protection of people in imminent danger, preventing attacks and threats against civilians, and in monitoring and providing security and protection in IDP camps, threatened villages, and migration routes.
Besides providing security, they will also assist national authorities and UN agencies in delivering humanitarian assistance in times of need and conducting escort duties in order to build the confidence of the local population in the rule of law.
The Jordanian Formed Police Unit is the fifth UNAMID FPU to be deployed, after the Bangladeshi, Indonesian, Nepalese and Nigerian, out of the 19 such units mandated by the Security Council resolution 1769(2007) establishing UNAMID.
SOURCE
United Nations – African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID)
