Inauguration of a “management and administration building” in profit of CPADD

The Center for Development of Post-Conflict Mine Action and Decontamination Actions (CPADD) experienced two major events in January, the first of which saw the arrival as director of the CPADD, of LCL OBELAKOU Saturnin succeeding LCL LOSSITODE Gilbert, January 5 2017 and the second, the inauguration of a modern management and administration building on January 31, 2017, in keeping with the ambitions of the CPADD. It is not necessary to recall that the CPADD was inaugurated in April 2003 by France and Benin and that it had seen its capacity of accommodation doubled from 24 rooms to 48 rooms of trainees, in 2009-2010, With funding from JAPAN.

Over the last 13 years, 36 African countries (Francophones, Anglophones and Lusophones) have relied on the CPADD and Benin, so that the CPADD has delivered 2371 diplomas since its opening (279 trainees for 16 courses in 2016). The mission of the center is to meet the needs of African countries in the field of training in humanitarian demining but also in the management of ammunition stocks and arms control “SALW”, enabling all African countries to benefit from A unique training structure in Africa, thus contributing to their commitment to international bodies in general and to the Ottawa Agreement (1998) in particular.

On January 31, 2017, the inauguration ceremony of the “jewel” building offered by Japan, in the words of the Deputy Minister for Defense MR Candide AZANNAI who presided over the ceremony, in the presence of Mr Kiyofumi KONISHI Ambassador of Japan, Mr. Siaka COULIBALY, UNDP representative in Benin, and the high-ranking Beninese military authorities, chief among them CEMG, Brigadier General AMOUSSOU, and LCL SCHIFFER representing the French Ambassador to Benin.

The project to extend the CPADD, whose objective is to strengthen technical and managerial capacities, has been equipped with computer equipment and office furniture to make it a modern management center. The project led by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Benin was the result of Benin’s will and Japan’s technical and financial support for 500,000 US dollars. The Government of Japan, as part of its policy of development and peacekeeping in the world and sensitive to the dangers of AP mines, which still cause more than 4,000 victims each year, The duration with France to help the CPADD to fulfill its mission and gave it the means to develop and to further increase the capacities of the center, to the benefit of the military personnel and the civilian personnel involved in the demining operations in Africa and particularly at the level of ECOWAS and ECCAS.