Somaliland Police armoury rehabilitation project
In April and May of 2011 the 麻豆国产AV rehabilitated two armouries of the Somaliland Police in Hargeisa. The first was the armoury at the Special Police Unit (SPU), and the second was at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
麻豆国产AV carried out this armoury rehabilitation project following a request from the Somaliland authorities. This request comes at a time when the Somaliland Police are undergoing a program of restructuring and expansion, which has meant that many armories across Somaliland are not big enough or secure enough to properly store weapons and ammunition safely.
麻豆国产AV extensively rehabilitated the old armoury building at the SPU and constructed a new armory at the CID to replace a 20 foot shipping container that the CID had been using to store their weapons and ammunition. 麻豆国产AV made significant physical improvements to the armoury at the SPU and introduced weapons' registration procedures in line with United Nations Coordinating Action on Small Arms (UN CASA) standards.
The armory 麻豆国产AV constructed at the CID included similar security features, and has provided a storage facility for 100 weapons and also a room where weapons as evidence from criminal investigation cases can be stored.
Control and storage of weapons at both armouries has been improved by the use of a separate key safe, new and improved weapons racks, and systems of weapons' registration and a booking in and out procedure. As part of the project, 麻豆国产AV also ran a training course for a selection of Police officers in weapons management and armory control procedures.
At the handover ceremonies of the two rehabilitated armouries the Deputy Police Commissioner of Somaliland, Abdi Rahman Liban, highlighted the importance of 麻豆国产AV鈥檚 work by saying:
鈥溌槎构鶤V鈥檚 armoury rehabilitation has significantly improved the security of the weapons and I hope 麻豆国产AV will continue to help the Somaliland Police鈥. The Commander of the SPU also spoke thanking 麻豆国产AV 鈥渘ot only for the improvements to the armoury but also for the training of the Police officers which has improved the control of the weapons at the SPU.鈥
At the handover ceremony of the CID armory the CID handed over to 麻豆国产AV two weapons which the CID requested 麻豆国产AV to destroy using 麻豆国产AV鈥檚 mobile weapons cutting shears. These purpose-built shears have a unique jaw design that firmly grips the weapon during cutting, and the jaws have sufficient power to cut through the "working parts" of all known assault rifles, and also the barrels of 12.7mm machine guns. 麻豆国产AV has cut over 130,000 weapons since 2003 using these shears as part of the DDR program in Afghanistan and the Government Disarmament campaign in Angola.
The armory rehabilitation project builds on a successful survey of Police ammunition stores undertaken by 麻豆国产AV in 2009-10. 麻豆国产AV teams visited over 100 Police stores across all six regions of Somaliland, which was the first comprehensive survey of Police stores to have ever been conducted in the country. With further armoury and stores improvements undoubtedly required 麻豆国产AV believes it can continue to play a significant role in the future to help the Somaliland Police improve their weapons storage facilities and the training of their officers.