African Union to 'train Somalia police': officials

MOGADISHU, Somalia Aug 29 (Garowe Online) - The national police chief in Somalia has said that the African Union peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) in the Somali capital Mogadishu will begin training police recruits, Radio Garowe reports.

Gen. Qeybdiid, Somali police chief
Gen. Abdi Qeybdiid, Somalia's national police boss, spoke Saturday at a ceremony in Mogadishu marking the returning of police officers who completed training abroad.

"AMISOM previously maintained [only] a military force now there are police units [in AMISOM] who will train our police recruits," Gen. Qeybdiid said.

He noted that new police recruits will be "trained inside Somalia" while the officers will receive training abroad. He did not specify which countries are training Somali police officers.

Gen. Bashir Gobe, the head of police training, told the ceremony that the Somali police force will receive new uniforms soon.

"A new government order will change police uniforms to blue shirts and black pants," according to Gen. Gobe.

He stated that the police force will begin receiving regular salary and promised 'accountability" within the Somali police force.

AMISOM commanders have not spoken publicly about training police recruits in Somalia.

Separately, Somalia's national police command issued an order yesterday barring off-duty members of the security forces from carrying weapons in public in Mogadishu.

It is not clear whether or not that order can go into effect in Mogadishu, where government forces control only some neighborhoods and most districts are controlled by insurgents, and near-daily guerrilla attacks are common.

Somalia's UN-recognized interim government is battling insurgents, who have vowed to overthrow the government.