Rwanda National Police

Rwanda National Police (RNP) and Singapore Police Force (SPF) held a bilateral meeting at the Police General Headquarters in Kacyiru, on Monday, July 17, to further strengthen the existing policing cooperation.

It was held in the framework of the existing cooperation signed in August last year in Singapore, formalizing partnership in capacity development as well as fighting and preventing transnational organized crimes.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Felix Namuhoranye, while welcoming his Singapore counterpart, Commissioner of Police (CP) Hoong Wee Teck, said the visit indicates the importance of the cooperation, commitment and willingness by the two police institutions to jointly counter the evolving security challenges.

He added that the bilateral engagements are inspired and supported by the leadership of the two countries, who laid a strong foundation to easily and freely work together in realization of shared interests.

"This is a testament of friendship and collaboration between our institutions in enhancing mutual support as we strive to make our countries safer. 

It is an opportunity to explore actionable measures and strategies geared towards enhancing our partnership," IGP Namuhoranye said.

The MoU highlights building institutions' capacity and capabilities in fighting all forms of transnational organized crime, cyber-crime, trafficking in persons, online child sexual exploitation, money laundering, public security and public order; fighting and preventing smuggling and trade in arms, ammunition and explosives, among others.

IGP Namuhoranye reiterated that partnering with Singapore Police Force was deliberate as a reliable, experienced and well established Police Force with vast policing capacities, capabilities and experiences.

"Strong cooperation is vital to counter fast evolving security threats. This visit is, therefore, an opportunity for us to explore ways to jointly optimize our abilities to address and tackle trans-boundary security challenges," IGP Namuhoranye said.

He pointed out that Singapore Police Force has an extensive range of advanced policing technologies to learn from going forward.

The Singapore Police Chief, Commissioner Hoong, said that the partnership between the two police institutions has further strengthened.

"A strong and constructive partnership will enable our two forces to learn from each other and develop more effective strategies and capabilities to ensure the safety and security of our people," Commissioner Hoong said.

Notwithstanding that the two countries are situated more than 5000 miles apart, Commissioner Hoong emphasized that they share broad similarities in the policing context such as our community policing strategy. 

"In our increasingly complex operational landscape, there are mutual areas of interest such as cybercrime that we can explore.

The Singapore Police Force is glad to have the RNP, a professional and accomplished police force, as one of our valued policing partners."

Commissioner Hoong later visited Kigali Genocide Memorial where he paid tribute to more than one million victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and the Campaign against Genocide Museum.

He is also expected to visit the RNP operations and training facilities in different parts of the country.