Mogadishu - The United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) has concluded a week-long Training of Trainers’ course for the Somali National Army (SNA) and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

The training, which focused on human rights, gender, women and child protection, was aimed at strengthening the troops’ understanding of international human rights in the application to their profession. UNSOM is providing the training under the UN Security Council Resolution 2124 and the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy requirement for UN support to non-UN security forces, which seeks to ensure that these forces respect international humanitarian law, international human rights law and refugee law.
The trainers, 45 from SNA and 27 from AMISOM, are already instructors in their respective contingents across South Central Somalia and have been tasked with sharing the knowledge acquired with their colleagues.

“The purpose of the training is to enhance the trainers’ understanding of human rights and child protection so that they go back to their various sectors and duplicate this training with their counterparts,” Musa Gassama, Director of UNSOM’s Human Rights Section, said at the graduation ceremony in Mogadishu on 16 June.

The Director of Training for the SNA, Colonel Mustafa Musa Mohamed, acknowledged the need for such training. “This training is important, the Somali army needs all the help it can get and today, the soldiers are well built physically but they also need to be informed of international law,” he said, adding that the graduates would share what they had learnt with their counterparts.

Second Lieutenant Abdul Mohammed of the SNA, who was among the graduates, said the training was beneficial and informative: “The training was good because we learnt how laws on human rights are practiced in other countries and now we can apply the same here in Somalia as we conduct our daily tasks.”

“The training on human rights is crucial to both SNA and AMISOM as it will help the beneficiaries to further train their counterparts across all sectors in the recently recovered areas on matters pertaining to human rights - the goal is to bring them to international standards,” said Colonel Daniel D. Yanke, AMISOM’s chief training.

UNSOM will continue to provide support to this core group of trainers for ongoing training in the regions.