Eritrean Gendarmerie (Italian Empire)

The Eritrean Gendarmerie (Italian: Gendarmeria Eritrea) is the militarized police force of Eritrea. Its duties include crime fighting, traffic control, maintaining public safety, and counter-terrorism. It is under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Interior of the Eritrean Autonomous Social Republic.

The Eritrean Gendarmerie operates throughout Eritrea. There are no local or "municipal" police departments in Eritrea. The General Command of the Eritrean Gendarmerie is located in Asmara. In an emergency, the Eritrean Gendarmerie can be reached by dialing 112 from any telephone in Eritrea. Eritrean Gendarmes carry the title of Zaptié, after the indigenous units attached to the Italian Royal Carabinieers recruited for the first time in 1888.

Name

In Eritrea, due to the numerous ethnic groups, the official name of the Eritrean Gendarmerie is provided only in Italian language, and it is "Gendarmeria Eritrea" ; the Italian name is reproduced on vehicles and buildings. Despite the Italian name being the official one, the official name of the Eritrean Gendarmerie is also translated in local languages.

Mission

The Eritrean Gendarmerie is responsible for public security, maintaining public order, securing public events and rallies, dismantling suspicious objects and explosives, riot and crowd control, law enforcement, crime fighting, detective work, covert operations against drug networks, investigating suspects, road traffic control, handling civilian complaints, handling youth violence, educational campaigns.

Organization

The Eritrean Gendarmerie is a mixed draftee-professional force, with some 35,000 Gendarmes. The Eritrean Gendarmerie are divided into the following central subdivisions:

• General Command
• International Relations Office;
• Legal Counsel Office;
• Immigration Control Command;
• Audit & Accounts Office;
• Economic Crimes Command;
• Public Complaints Office;
• Disciplinary Court;
• Service Administration Command;
• Healthcare and Safety Command;
• Controller Office;
• Spokesman Office;
• Personnel Command;
• Investigation & Intelligence Command: manages the criminal police duties on nation-wide level and manages the Central Criminal Division;
• Logistic Support Command;
• Organization & Planning Command;
• Traffic Police Command;
• Patrol and Security Command: oversees the operational units.

Regional Commands

The Eritrean Gendarmerie is subivided into six Regional Commands, one for each of the new Regions:

• Maekel (headquartered in Asmara);
• Anseba (headquartered in Cheren);
• Gash-Barka (headquartered in Barentù);
• Debub (headquartered in Mendefera);
• Semienawi Keyih Bahri (headquartered in Massaua);
• Debubawi Keyih Bahri (headquartered in Assab).

Regional Commands have the operational responsibility to coordinate subordinate units according general orders issued by the General Command, as well as to carry out general police duties. District Commands are subordinate to Regional Commands and are territory control bodies.

Organisation

The performance of police services is provided by Regional and District Commands. In the capital city of the Region, it functions the Regional Command; such Regional Commands are equated to Italian Questure since late 19th Century (when they presided over 9 Commissariats). In District capital towns are established detached District Commands, headed by a Gendarmerie officer reporting to the Regional Commander. In the few municipalities where an Gendarmerie Station (subordinate to the District Commands or directly to the Regional Commands) is not established the Municipal Commissioner exercises the functions of an officer of public security under the direction of the Gendarmerie Regional Commander.
The offices of the Regional Commands are divided into four divisions: the first (cabinet) waits to services more directly aimed at the maintenance of order, the second (police) provides for the discovery of the crime and is maintained for such purposes, in direct contact with the judicial authorities and the third (administrative police) exercises functions of a preventive nature, while the territorial control is performed by the fourth Division.

District Command

The District Command is a structure of the Eritrean Gendarmerie, framed in the territorial organization of the Regional Command. The District Command is an operational detachment of the higher organizations: inside the District Command are present, albeit smaller and tailored to the operational needs of the covered area, the same offices and services available to the Regional Command. The operation jurisdiction of these Commands is extended on their District.
Within the District Command there are typically present facilities at which the citizen can carry out different practices of administrative police (issuance or renewal of passport, firearms license, administrative licensing, residence permit, etc..). There is also an "Anti-Crime Squad", in which is possible to file a complaint, issue lawsuit, filing a complaint and generally make the most of the possible actions of a legal nature. In Eritrea there are 55 District Commands.

Territorial Station

The Territorial Station is the lowest operational unit of the Eritrean Gendarmerie apparatus, articulated on the organic forces ranging from a minimum of 4 to over 20 Gendarmes. Stations are staffed only with troops and subofficers, commanded by a Subofficer of the minimum rank of Marshal. The station is responsible in a very specific area: large portions of the civilian infrastructure or city, or one or more municipalities. The Station Commander is responsible for direct control of land and related institutional activities. The Eritrean soil is so carefully covered by the dense network of stations, which are also the custodians of the first task of protecting public order and safety within the area they encompass, as well as the first line of counter-espionage activities. The Station Commander has several duties: he has the immediate direction of institutional service within his jurisdiction, where carries out the investigation, both proactive and delegated by the Prosecutor, as Public Security officer he intervenes in public and private disputes and exercises all initiatives in order to take appropriate preventive measures against socially dangerous people and, from a strictly managerial point of view, he is responsible for technical and operational using, for discipline and staff training, as well as for the properties, vehicle, computer and electronic equipment and furnishings.
The station is the central element of territorial control and they are located in buildings specially constructed or upgraded in order to promote an effective defence. The premises of the station include a security prison, a chamber of discipline, a kitchen and a dining hall, housing the commander, one double every two agents, and, if married, one for each room and a garage.
The Station reports to the relevant District or Regional (for the District directly administered by the Regional capital) commander. Territorial Stations are usually responsible for more than one municipality, but the Gendarmerie Marshal who is the Station Commander is the Local Authority of Public Security only in the municipality where the Station is located in and only if in that municipality there is not a Regional Command or a District Command.

Operational forces

• Border Guard: it is the combat arm of the police and mainly serves in unquiet areas. The Border Police has both professional officers and conscripts;
• Special Security Unit: it is the police elite counter terror hostage rescue unit.
• Regional Mobile Units: they are the on-call counter-terror and riot police units in each district. They have gained a reputation of being the most elite force on call and ready at any time, although charged by many of using excess brutality.

Eritrean Border Guard

The Eritrean Border Guard (Italian: Guardia Eritrea di Confine) is, since 1999, the border security branch of the Eritrean Gendarmerie. While its main task is securing Eritrean's external borders (mainly northern border, shared with Sudan), it has also been deployed in assisting both the Eritrean National Republican Guard and the Italian National Republican Army, as well as for counter-terrorism and law enforcement operations.
The Eritrean Border Guard is composed of professional officers on payroll and field policemen redirected from the conscription. All border Gendarmes receive combat training and in addition are also trained for counter-terrorism, riot control and police work. Excellent Gendarmes can specialize in some profession and receive special training to become snipers, buggie-drivers, dog operators, bomb squad, etc. Because of their combat training, border Gendarmes are employed in unique areas, where there are greater risks for riots, violence and unrest.
The Eritrean Border Guard deploys some special units on its own:

• Special Counterterrorism Unit: the Special Counterterrorism Unit (Unità Speciale Antiterrorismo, U.S.A.T.) is the undercover special operations unit attached to the Eritrean Border Guard, but directly subordinate to the intelligence. A secret unit, its personnel do not wear uniforms and are not allowed to disclose their membership of the organization. The U.S.A.T. are often expected to carry out complex missions with little or no preparation, often involving daylight raids in volatile areas outside Eritrean borders.
• Tactical Rapid Deployment Unit;
• Infiltrations Interception Unit.

Central Criminal Division

The Central Criminal Division (Italian: Divisione Centrale Anticrimine, Di.C.A.C.) is an Eritrean crime-fighting umbrella organization within the Eritrean Gendarmerie. It is tasked with investigating national crimes and corruption and it is subdivided into five Units:

• Fraud Investigations Unit;
• International Crime Investigations Unit: deals with cross-straits organized crime;
• Financial Investigations Unit;
• Locating Stolen Vehicles Unit;
• Prisons Investigations Unit.

Ranks and insignia

The Eritrean Gendarmerie retains some of the rank titles of the former Royal Corps of Colonial Troops, of the Carabinieri colonial units and of the former Italian Africa Police; however, the rank structure is fully integrated within the corrispondence grades of the military of the Italian Social Republic and of the Italian Empire at large. Eritrean Gendarmerie uniforms are khaki.

Related voices

• Eritrean National Republican Guard (R.S.I.)