A first-time visitor not conversant with the nation’s history, will pass through Gishambashayo Cell, a locality in Rubaya Sector, Gicumbi District, distinguished by steep idyllic hills, with no inkling how it is part of the phenomenal phases of Rwanda’s liberation struggle and history.

What a visitor easily becomes aware of along the twisting unpaved countryside road leading to the village are the typical signs of a hard working population.

Apart from the evergreen expanse of eucalyptus trees and hillside terraces, entire hill slopes and valleys have shades of sorghum, nutrient-packed climbing beans, and maize, among other food crops, ready to harvest.

This region of the Northern Province is where, in 1992, the then rebel Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), the armed wing of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), set up its main sickbay as it planned final assaults on the regime that masterminded the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

A few miles away, in Mulindi, another sector of Gicumbi, was the RPA/RPF high command base.

As the nation gears up for the 21st anniversary of the Liberation on July 4, the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) has launched a series of socio-economic activities during the annual ‘Army Week.’

RDF has been providing medical care to thousands of rural people and other economic development activities, in Gicumbi since June 25.

"The military is championing a holistic human security aspect of a true liberation,” said the Military and Defence Spokesperson, Brig Gen Joseph Nzabamwita, while addressing journalists inside a classroom at Gishambashayo Primary School jointly built by the army and the local population.

"Liberation started in October 1990 but it is a continuous struggle. RDF believes the liberation war needs to take a different phase where we help to address the human security needs of Rwandans,” Gen Nzabamwita added.

Illiteracy, disease and other development issues are the military’s focus as the latter hope to contribute to national development, and, the RDF made Gishambashayo and several other areas nearby, the launch pad for the Army Week activities.

A new health post, complete with a doctor and a nurse, integrated into the school was inaugurated on Monday.

Clean piped water, sourced from a hillside reservoir used by the the rebel army 20 years ago, is now supplied to the health post and school.

Two decades ago, the rebels’ hospital, which was managed by Col Dr Zac Nsenga, then a junior officer class one (JO1) as per guerilla ranks, did not only cater for the sick and injured troops, but also treated thousands of civilians.

Civilians in the then rebel-held area had sacrificed a lot and worked with the RPF to liberate the country.

"The sickbay was a fully-fledged hospital that attended to everyone, soldiers and civilians with normal ailments.

There were thousands of civilians under our protection here. They became aware that we were people like them,” Nsenga said.

"I can’t count the caesarean sections I conducted here. The population actually received the best medical care than they had ever had under the regime of the time,” he added.

Nsenga recalls that the mission directive from the then RPA Commander in Chief – now President Paul Kagame – during the liberation struggle, was that soldiers would be the foundation for national transformation.

When the country was liberated, he said, the concept was put in the Constitution. Article 173 stipulates that the RDF mission includes shoring up national development.

"The model that started back then is now being extended countrywide. What we have accomplished in the past few days is testimony that when civilians collaborate with public security organs, nothing is impossible,” Nsenga said.

Of Army Week and it’s fruit

The idea of the Army Week was conceived by the RDF leadership in 2009 as a series of practical and high value socio-economic activities aimed at supporting the national development agenda.

Activities underway in Gicumbi District include construction of health posts, a modern market, rehabilitation of the 11-kilometre Gatuna-Rubaya road, and electricity and water connectivity to key community infrastructure.

With six classrooms, six teachers and a pupil population of 413, including 213 girls, Fabien Ndahimana, the head teacher of Gishambashayo Primary School, is happy that the morning and noon shifts are making a "real positive impact.”

"Our area never had a school. Most children would walk over seven kilometres to the nearest school, GS Rubaya. Now children who had dropped out of school have returned,” Ndahimana said.

Later, at the end of the morning shift, Florence Uwamahoro, a 13-year-old pupil in a blue uniform dress, said walking miles to her previous school in Rubaya Sector was daunting.

"Things are changing for the better. We are so happy. There are so many people down in Rubaya now getting free medical treatment. Many people from as far as Uganda are coming for treatment here,” Jcqueline Mukandaberetse, 42, a native of Gishambashayo, said.

"I only wish I could get my message to President Kagame, and tell him how thankful I am for all the good things he has done for us. I also thank our army.”

By Tuesday morning when The New Times visited the area, more than 7,800 people with various ailments, some complex and life-threatening, had been treated free of charge.

The health centre at Rubaya Sector was crowded as medical operations in ophthalmology, dental care, gynaecology, pediatrics, voluntary counselling and testing, and voluntary medical male circumcision continued.

The Rwanda Military Hospital, Kanombe, has literally moved the majority of its specialists to the region.

The RDF’s Engineering Brigade constructed an integrated market in Rubaya, complete with stalls and a slaughter house, to serve four sectors including Rubaya, Rushaki, and Cyumba, with a population of nearly 80,000 people.

In addition, it is a cross-border market that will serve people in neighbouring Uganda.”editorial@newtimes.co.rw