Police receive special human rights training in Cafunfo - Angola

National police officers in Cafunfo, a mining town in Lunda Norte, started on Monday a training program on the proportional use of force.

The local population has for long denounced the excessive and disproportionate use of power by the local police. 

They say there is no healthy relationship between both parties.

"I notice here in Cafunfo, that the police and the population have no relationship. , there is no understanding, there is no comprehension. Here in Cafunfo the armed men are the ones with power.”

The deputy national director of the practical school of the national police said that complaints of this kind are frequent, hence the need to train the national police throughout Angola.

"The personnel of Cafunfo have double work, not only from the perspective of police work, but all the rest of the follow-up and referral that they have to do. At no time can the police say that it's not up to me, they have the obligation to direct people.. one of the complaints that we've had the most, is the excessive and disproportionate use of coercive means." says Pinduka Marques - Deputy Director of the National Police Practical School.

According to Rafael Marques, president of the Study Center for Good Governance UFOLO, this initiative arises from the need to create platforms for dialogue between civil society and the National Police

"It is not enough just to complain and say that the police killed, the police did and the police that. It is fundamental that we contribute to make the police better. We have the question of the use of coercive means that is fundamental, how the police should use these coercive means, how to apply them. How the police should serve the citizen, how they should establish mechanisms for dialogue." explained Rafael Marques - President of the UFOLO study center for good governance.