Aweil Special Police Protection Unit deprived of female investigators

By Hou Akot Hou

The special police protection unit in Aweil town of Northern Bahr El Ghazal State lacks female personnel to help investigate cases of gender-based violence (GBV).

Santino Ariel Awar, a male special protection unit officer said they are finding difficulty in investigating cases of GBV.

“It is always hard to get proper information from the GBV survivors because they could not open up properly to the male investigators,” Awar said during the rule of law forum held in Aweil town on Friday.

He appealed to partners like the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and other national NGOs to help in the training of female investigators.

“I am appealing to the state partners such as UNMISS, UNDP and other international agencies to help us in training more female workers for us. At times the female survivors are brought but they cannot do the work due to lack of training,” Awar said.

Ajok Wol Atak, the UNMISS representative, said they have requested the special police protection unit to recruit and identify those with better education to ease training.

“We have been telling you to get those with good education, but the ones who are supposed to be in the line of duties are being made to cook for the officers which is not good,” Ajok said.

Cases of GBV are on the rise in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State.