The Government of Rwanda has promised to continue contributing to peace support operations.
Rwanda has peacekeepers both military and police serving in different countries, including Sudan, South Sudan, Liberia and Haiti.
Lt. Gen. Charles Kayonga, the Chief of Defence Staff of the Rwanda Defence Forces told media, “RDF has and will continue contribute to peace support operations at regional and global level. We, therefore, have to equip ourselves with necessary tools that allow us to significantly make a difference in mission areas.”
He was addressing 35 senior officers representing over 3,500 peacekeeping officers from 25 African countries, under the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) during a one-day workshop in Kigali on Friday.
Dr Tim Rainy, the Director of ACOTA based in Washington, USA also attended the event.
ACOTA aims at enhancing capacities and capabilities of its African Partner Countries, regional institutions, and the continent’s peacekeeping resources as a whole to plan for, train, deploy, and sustain sufficient quantities of professionally competent peacekeepers to meet conflict transformation requirements with minimal non-African assistance.
The Military and Defence spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Joseph Nzabamwita, said the impact of ACOTA workshops has been positive as world peace is improving, thanks to the peacekeeping missions worldwide.
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