Thirty two Rwanda National Police officers, including nine females, will depart on October 18 for a one-year peacekeeping mission under the African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur (Unamid).

The Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel K. Gasana, during a pre-deployment briefing, yesterday, urged the officers to stay focused to their mission mandate.

"Your country loves you and is sending you, be good representatives, work as a team with self esteem and discipline,” the Police Chief told the officers at the RNP headquarters in Kacyiru.

The deployment will bring the number of Rwanda Individual Police Officers (IPOs) in Unamid to 67.

The mandate of IPOs includes mentoring the local force, monitoring and humanitarian assistance.

The Darfur deployment will also bring the total number of RNP officers in the eight missions to 562, with 82 of them females.

The missions are Mali, Ivory Coast, South Sudan, Haiti, Central African Republic, Liberia, Abyei and Sudan.

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