Officials from the United Nations are in the country to assess the operational skills and readiness of Rwanda National Police (RNP) officers trained for peacekeeping missions.

The week-long evaluation exercise is taking place at the Police training school in Rwamagana District.

The exercise, that started Monday, involves various tests including language, crowd control, driving and shooting skills.

The UN officials spearheading the evaluations include Eko Budman from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and Silviu Octavian from the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

A contingent of 240 peacekeepers is scheduled to depart for South Sudan while 160 others will be deployed in Haiti to replace the officers who are about to complete their mission.

Chief Supt. Toussaint Muzezayo, from RNP’s Peace Support Operations, explained that the assessment is a prerequisite required by the UN prior to deployment.

"They are assessing their ability to perform peacekeeping assignments in mission areas,” Chief Supt. Muzezayo said.

"They test their language proficiency, either in English or French depending on the preference of the officers and the mission where they will be deployed, their shooting skills, their capacity and ability in crowd control, police techniques and driving skills for the selected drivers, among other peacekeeping aspects,” he added.

Rwanda maintains five police contingents of 820 police officers in three missions; Haiti, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

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