N'Djamena, 26 February 2009 - A ceremony marking the official launching of the deployment of the Détachement Intégré de Sécurité (DIS), a Chadian force trained for humanitarian protection, took place on 26 February 2009 in Abeche in eastern Chad.

Several highly ranking officials, including members of government and of the diplomatic corps, representatives of NGOs, a significant number of local authorities, as well as senior staff of the United Nations system, attended the ceremony.

In line with its mandate, the United Nations Mission in Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) has trained a total of 850 elements of the DIS, all from the Chadian police and gendarmerie. Because the training was conducted in batch, the actual deployment of the DIS started on 24 October 2008, ahead of the official launching of the ceremony.

Since then, the DIS has conducted several activities including 966 patrols which led to the arrest of 81 criminals and the retrieval of four stolen vehicles including two from neighboring Sudan.

With the official launching of its deployment today, the DIS is now invested with all its powers to apply its own motto, which is "to serve and protect."