On the occasion of the inauguration Thursday in Rabat of the headquarters of the United Nations Office for Counter-terrorism and Training in Africa (UNOCT), the first of its kind on the African continent, UN Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov thanked Morocco for its “unwavering support” for the work of this center, which is designed to strengthen the capacities and skills of Member States to defeat the scourge of terrorism.
“The Program Office will not only bring us closer to our beneficiaries, but will also allow us to benefit from the expertise and knowledge of Morocco and other member states and organizations in the region that have significant experience in the fight against terrorism,” Voronkov said in a statement.
The UN Office of Counter-terrorism and Training in Africa will work to develop and implement accredited programs that focus on capacity building and skills development in the area of counter-terrorism, including security, investigation and prosecution, prison and border management, disengagement, rehabilitation and reintegration.
It will rely on the pooling of the expertise of Morocco and UNOCT in order to provide quality training for the benefit of African States, according to a collaborative and supportive approach reflecting a spirit of collective responsibility.
For his part, the head of the new Program Office, Carlos Monteiro Reis, also expressed his gratitude to the Kingdom for agreeing to host in Rabat the headquarters of this Office, noting that it has already begun to develop training programs tailored to the anti-terrorist police and border security management.
He added that the Office will work closely with other UN entities, including the Counter-terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), UN Police and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
