Monrovia – The Armed Forces of Liberia has disclosed a plan to recruit 350 Liberians into the army beginning with a pre-recruitment training of only female applicants.
The pre-recruitment training of females will begin November 22, 2021, and end on December 13, 2021. The training will take place at the Barclay Training Center in Monrovia.
According to the Ministry of National Defense, for anyone to be eligible to participate in the training, the person should be a citizen of Liberia. Also, the applicants should have at least a valid high school document.
Also, the candidate should be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, should be between the ages of 18 to 35 years, and professional shall be at most 40 years of age.
The individual should also be cleared of any human rights abuses or violations.
Speaking to journalists Wednesday morning, the Assistant Minister for Public Affairs Sam Collins warned individuals not to pay money or any services for the recruitment.
“Participation in the pre-recruitment training is voluntary and free. Just meet the requirements,” Collins warned.
He added: “Please note, that the pre-recruitment training exercises are intended for female candidates residing in Montserrado County while the national recruitment drive will kick off later, we will be recruiting 350 persons into the army,”
After the pre-recruitment training, will follow a nationwide recruitment drive, the Assistant Minister of Defense said.
According to the Minister, each of the four geographical regions will have a recruitment center.
“The Ministry of and AFL are considering and prioritizing the recruitment of persons with professional civil specializations in the areas of Medical Specialties, engineers of all categories, lawyers, maritime professionals, agriculturists, information technology, band, and mortician,” Minister Collins ended.
The Minister also explained that public vetting is key. “We don’t want the bad guys in the system,” he said.
The applicants according to Minister Collins will be trained by AFL personals.
He said: “We (AFL) have trained two batches. So, we know our jobs and we know how to detect fake documents.”
The training, he said, will not protect settled gender adding that males and females will be trained equally.
“You will not be seen as male or female. We will train everyone. Also, 350 will be recruited,” he said.
According to the Minister, the issue of infrastructure has caused the delay for the Army not training people for a long time.
He added that one million United States dollars have been allocated to deal with the recruitment and upgrading of their facilities.