As part of its cooperation with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Ministry of National Defense organized a regional seminar on sampling and analysis in a highly contaminated environment from October 6 to 9, 2019, at the National Army Circle and the National Institute of Forensics and Criminology of the National Gendarmerie. This seminar was led by OPCW experts and Algerian specialists.
The opening of this seminar was chaired, on behalf of Lieutenant General, Vice Minister of National Defense, Chief of Staff of the National People’s Army, by the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Defense, Major General Ghrissi Abdelhamid.
In his inaugural address, the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Defense wished, firstly, to thank the OPCW for the initiative of organizing this seminar, intended to increase and strengthen the technical capacities of African States and, secondly, to specify that this event is part of the partnership linking Algeria to the OPCW, which has experienced quantitative and qualitative development in recent years. He also stated that the organization of this first edition of this regional seminar follows the commitments made by Mr. Fernando Arias, Director General of the OPCW, during his first visit to Algeria, a month after taking up his duties at the OPCW, to give great importance to our region in the Organization’s agenda and program.
The Secretary General of the Ministry of National Defense also emphasized Algeria’s commitments to further develop its technical and operational capabilities in the field of protection and assistance in order to address all kinds of threats and risks, especially given the current security context in our region.
Finally, the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Defense stated that Algeria considers that the use of laboratory expertise, meeting the required technical standards in this field, has become a necessity to achieve the objectives of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Regarding the expected objectives of this regional seminar, the Executive Secretary of the Interministerial Committee for the Implementation of the CWC stated: “This regional seminar, considered a first in Africa, has the main objective of promoting the assistance and protection capabilities against chemical warfare agents and the expertise of specialists from States Parties, in their capacity as first responders and those responsible for sampling and analysis operations in a highly contaminated environment, in the event of a chemical attack or incident, in accordance with Article X of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
To this end, the Executive Secretary emphasized that the seminar’s work will be structured around four (04) modules, namely: sampling, personal protective equipment, decontamination and analysis, and medical intervention. The Executive Secretary also emphasized that Algeria plans to organize this activity on a continuous and periodic basis, which will be a major asset for specialists in our region, especially in the fields mentioned above.
The work of this seminar included nineteen (19) conferences and four (04) practical sessions dealing, overall, with aspects related to detection and sampling techniques and methods, prevention and safety procedures using appropriate means of protection, first aid to be provided to victims of this type of incident as well as analytical techniques used for the detection and identification of toxic agents, where a guided tour, at the level of the specialized laboratories of the INCC/GN, was organized for the benefit of OPCW experts and all African participants.
