A female officer of the RSIPF will lead the second group of officers from the Force to be deployed to the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur, Sudan in Africa.
“Eight RSIPF officers are now ready to be deployed to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur. They have met all the pre-qualifications and training and medical checks and their files are already with the UN. We are waiting for instructions from the UN on when they will be deployed to Sudan,” says Commissioner, Matthew Varley.
Commissioner Varley adds: “The group of eight officers will be made up of both male and female officers and their team leader will be a female Inspector.”
“These new group of officers, like the current group of five RSIPF officers already in Sudan, are part of an unarmed UN Mission and are not part of any military style operation. The current five officers already in Darfur are involved in training and capacity development operations. This is one way of giving back after the 14 years of capacity training by the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands,” says Commissioner Varley.
The current group of five RSIPF male officers serving in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan are expected to return to Solomon Islands towards the end of September after serving a year in the Mission.
“RSIPF is very proud of the performance of the current five officers in Sudan and we look forward to the same professionalism to be shown by the next group of eight officers when they are deployed,” says Commissioner Varley.