United States military officers trained nearly three dozen of their Cambodian counterparts in disaster relief yesterday, including lessons on how to rescue civilians from floods in light of recent flooding.

Phung Siphin, a commissioner of operational planning with the Cambodia Royal Gendarmerie, said that military police were “hungry” to gain expertise from US forces.

“This training with the US is very important. We rarely get lessons from developed countries,” he said, adding that 3,000 officials had already been deployed nationwide to rescue flood-stricken residents.

A total of 35 military police officials participated in the training at the Sunway Hotel in Phnom Penh.