BRUSSELS—The ambassador who heads a nascent European Union mission charged with training Mali's police forces depicted a security apparatus in the African country that is almost entirely dysfunctional and will take years to repair.
Albrecht Conze, the German diplomat whose team will ultimately total 75 people, said Monday that members of Mali's police, gendarmerie and National Guard have for years been selected for reasons other than merit, leaving the forces badly crippled.
"These three forces are not in good shape right now," Mr. Conze said. The officers have little knowledge of police work, he said, and "training is lacking everywhere."
He added that "the gangrene of other considerations has been creeping in over a long period of time."
The specialists now trying to determine what the Mali police need most, Mr. Conze said, have "come to the conclusion that in fact they need everything."
The police training mission is separate from an EU operation aimed at training Mali's military. The police training mission was launched in April, when European leaders concluded that even if the country's army were modernized, it would suffer major security problems if its police agencies remained unprofessional.
The Malian government invited the mission.
It isn't clear whether Mali needs three separate internal security forces—the police, gendarmerie and National Guard—each of which numbers roughly 5,000 members. The organizations' responsibilities have changed over the years, often based on favoritism under various regimes, so that the forces' current duties aren't clearly defined.
Now, Mr. Conze said, "there is quite a big challenge with regard to who does what."
The mission is expected to be fully operational by spring, when it will have about 50 trainers and 25 support staff. The EU has authorized the mission for two years and it can be renewed for two more, which is widely expected.
Morale is low within Mali's police organizations and leadership is feeble, EU officials say, because of the overall weakness of Mali's political system. The only way the training mission will succeed, the officials concede, is if Malian leaders and citizens throw their support behind the mission and its goals, which isn't a certainty.
Mali's current crisis began in 2012 with a military coup and a rebellion in the north that left the country engulfed in chaos. France hurriedly dispatched a military force that largely managed to restore order and shut down the rebel offensive.
EU leaders, worried about Mali's ability to keep order in the years to come, launched a mission to train the country's armed forces in early 2013. That mission, with more than 200 trainers and about 380 support and security staff, is expected to last until May 2016. The police training mission headed by Mr. Conze is intended to supplement that.
Elsewhere in Africa, the EU is enmeshed in a mission in the Central African Republic that is attempting to stabilize the capital, Bangui, until the job can be handed over to United Nations or African forces.
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