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Central Southern AfricaMissions OperationsReport

The Lion-Pontiès method: foot patrol: the key to success

(credit: EUFOR Rca)

(B2) If for troops like the French or the Italians, accustomed to patrolling, on foot, to discussing with the population, for most contingents, the Lion-Pontiès method is surprising.

The key to success

« This is one of the keys to our rapid success in certain districts. When you're on patrol, people are watching, but there's no sense of security. When you are on foot, there are discussions, we share. We're actually in the population, they live in it. says one of the mission leaders.

Police not equipped to deal

The Central African police are there at times. The 5th arrondissement police station has recently reopened. But it is not yet permanently occupied. When the tension becomes too strong, the police fall back on their central barracks. They are not equipped and armed to deal with all incidents.

The difficulty of having equipment

The overall approach is a very fashionable European theorization in Brussels meaning that we combine all the instruments available to the European Union (political and economic, security and development, humanitarian and military, etc.) ". And the reality... is quite different. " I asked for 150.000 euros to carry out certain projects. I got no response »

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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