On December 4th, Hon. Kazuya Shimba made an
official visit to the International Peace Support Training Centre (IPSTC)
during his 6-hour stopover in Nairobi, Kenya.
The IPSTC is one of the best PKO training centers in Africa, and the
Government of Japan has been supporting the center since 2008. The center has two campuses in Nairobi: PCSS (Peace and
Conflict Studies School) in Karen and HPSS (Humanitarian and Peace Support
School) in Embakasi. PCSS provides
lecture-based courses on strategies, while HPSS offers exercise-based courses
focused on tactics in the field. This
time, the Vice Foreign Minister visited the campus of HPSS to see operational
exercises conducted there.
After a short briefing by the Director of
the PKO center, Vice Minister Shimba and his staff moved to the Peace Support
Operation Training Village, where the IPSTC provided a
special demonstration on civilian protection for the Vice Minister. The storyline of the demonstration was that
an armed rebel group attacked an IDP camp in a small village when the Red Cross
was providing a health check-up inside the camp.
“BANG!”
Loud gunfire echoed throughout the training village. Taking advantage of the vast area, vehicles
raced around the field and lined up in formation. As the facilitators of the center tried to make
trainings as close to the real situation as possible, the demonstration made us
feel as if we were witnessing a real case.
Vice Minister Shimba was very impressed by
the realistic trainings provided at the center.
He welcomed African initiatives to address conflicts in the continent by
themselves and stressed the important role played by Kenya in promoting the region's peace
and stability.
Vice Minister left Nairobi on the same
day. After Kenya, he visited Juba, South
Sudan, to hold meetings with UNMISS and then headed to Dublin, Ireland, to
attend a Ministerial Council of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe)).
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