Driven by the painful experience of 1994, Rwanda Defence Forces has, over the years, dedicated its personnel and other resources in peacekeeping missions to help ensure that what happened in Rwanda in 1994 never happens again anywhere else in the world.

When I first journeyed by road and then air through the mainly Arabic North of the then largest country in Africa, Sudan, in December 2010, camel and donkey cadavers were a familiar sight on the roadside.

But there were signs of hope too. At the time, an intensely unpredictable security situation in the country’s western region – Darfur – had drawn in four battalions of Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) peacekeepers under the AU-UN hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID), to keep the peace.

Following in the footpaths of a Rwandan peacekeeper, I got a first-hand account of why many observers say that the Rwanda soldier on peacekeeping duty is doing a tremendous job – and contributing to the good image of Rwanda – through sheer distinctive RDF valour and selflessness.

Before flying to Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, Joseph Rutabana, then head of Rwanda’s diplomatic mission in Khartoum, intimated that the job Rwandan troops do "and the way they do it” shows how Rwanda conducts its business and politics.

The peacekeepers, he had said, are highly disciplined, and highly professional. And they respect the host country, its people, culture and values.

On the other side of town, Sudanese journalist Gabriel Shadar, who was reporting for UN’s Radio Miraya, would be the first local to corroborate this.

"They are friendly, and very professional. You find them very alert, smartly dressed and very respectful. They create friendships. They try to learn our local language. They are always welcome here,” he said.

Given what Shadar had heard and read about Rwanda, especially the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, he found it hard to believe that the Rwandan contingent in Khartoum "is the product of that country.”

"It totally changes our perspective of Rwanda. This is giving a very different image of Rwandan people,” Shadar had confessed.

Portraits of a dedicated, hard working and generous Rwandan soldier were not in the capital alone.

During my visit, ‘Super Camp,’ the headquarters of UNAMID, also happened to be the base for the then Force Commander – Rwanda’s Lt Gen Patrick Nyamvumba, now a full General and the Chief of Defence Staff of the RDF.

Even with the desert surroundings, an astute eye easily took in the fact that the Rwandan way of doing things was being emulated.

‘The best of the best’

There is good reason why Scott Gration, then US special envoy to Sudan, referred to Rwandan peacekeepers as being "the best of the best.” 

During a nine-hour road trip to Nyala, capital of South Darfur, the retired US Air Force Maj Gen told Rwandan troops he met in Shangil Tobaya that their reputation, and that of the people they represent, is excellent. Gration told the troops that he would be proud to go to combat with them, "any day, any time.”

"Many of you have come from a situation whereby you, too, can understand the pain that is associated with this kind of violence.”

The noble work – thoughtfulness and unrivaled generosity – by the daughters and sons of Rwanda is also highly appreciated by locals in the far-flung villages of western Sudan.

I took all this in one scorching Saturday noon when Issa Adamu Ah’madi, an elderly local Sheik, welcomed me and some Rwandan soldiers to Torba, a village of mud-walled huts and straw fences, on the outskirts of Zam Zam.

Pleased to host Rwandans in his home, the Torba elder welcomed us into his little hut. An Arabic speaking soldier was interpreting. Two small beds occupied nearly all of the hut.

We sat on them as he took an old plastic chair that had lost its white colour to the rough weather. As we conversed, more like old friends, our hospitable host passed around a plate of dry wild dates as sweet as Rwandan honey.

The Sheik told many stories. One was of how, a year earlier, a Rwandan commander in Zam Zam helped solicit $25,000 and later, together with 300 Rwandan troops under his command, joined the Torba community in Umuganda – the monthly community work exercise in Rwanda – to make bricks for constructing the village’s first ever primary school.

Before that contingent completed its tour of duty and returned home, more than 60,000 bricks were ready. 

"Frederick [the commander who initiated the school project] continued to ask what more they could do for us. He requested me to list all the remaining requirements for our school to be completed,” Ah’madi recalled.

In early April, 2011, nearly four months after my Darfur travels, I would learn that the succeeding Rwandan contingent in Torba actually carried on with the project to the end. Members of RDF’s RwanBatt23 (37 infantry battalion) who replaced their colleagues in Torba eventually officially handed over two classroom blocs and an office.

Gen Nyamvumba, who officiated at the event, pledged more support to the village, by constructing four more classrooms and a borehole in the second phase.

The school in Turba is one among millions of the testimonies of the good relations and cooperation between local communities and Rwandan peacekeepers wherever they operate.

Rwanda deployed its first contingency to a peacekeeping mission, under the auspices of the then African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), in August 2004, exactly 10 years after the 1994 Genocide.

This contingent of 155 troops was actually the first on the ground for the new peacekeeping mission, AMIS. They were a launch pad for Rwanda’s participation in world peacekeeping missions. Some had participated in the military campaign that stopped the 1994 Genocide.

The irony about their experience with the disastrous United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) that stood by as thousands of innocent people were massacred day and night in Rwanda was not lost on them.

The challenges

According to Col Emmanuel Rugazora, the officer who commanded Rwanda’s first contingent in Darfur, one of the main challenges they encountered was stereotype.

Some of the military observers they met on arrival doubted their professionalism. In July 2014, Col Rugazora, a Major at the time of this historic deployment, told The New Times that members of his contingent leveraged their liberation struggle experience as they endeavored to keep peace in the vast region. 

The fact that they encountered numerous challenges during the liberation struggle and were able to persevere "gave me confidence that there was nothing that could threaten the unit I was leading.”

Rugazora’s unit was meant to deploy in three sectors; El Fasher, Kapkabia and Nyala but they were required to spread far and wider than earlier anticipated. They were not intimidated by the task. 

This initial peacekeeping mission was to be the birth of Rwanda’s peacekeeping prowess, not only in terms of restoring and maintaining security, but also participating in the social life of the people in the countries where they serve.

Rwanda – now the fifth biggest troop contributor in peacekeeping operations in the world – maintains more than 4,000 troops in hotspots, including in Sudan, South Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali.

It is also a major contributor of policing services, with deployments of Police officers in Sudan, South Sudan, Liberia, Mali, Haiti and CAR. But the story of RDF’s contribution to peacekeeping is not entirely told by the number of troops deployed. The gist of it is in its gallant and humanitarian methodology. The Rwandan military has revolutionized the concept of peacekeeping.

In missions under the auspices of the UN and AU, Rwandan troops’ distinctive approach to peacekeeping exports the country’s home-grown initiatives like the communal work (Umuganda), with numerous socio-economic facilities; schools and health centres, being constructed, or renovated.

The men and women of the RDF do not only build schools in foreign lands. They replicated the annual Army Week Medical Outreach programme that sees thousands of Rwandans getting much needed free medical care, and other socio-economic infrastructure such as roads, bridges and health centres built for hard-up communities.

Wherever they operate from, Rwandan peacekeepers are exemplary, unrivaled in conduct and accomplishment. It is not by sheer chance that they were the ones trusted to take full charge of security for CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, or his predecessor Catherine Samba-Panza.

Panza last December bestowed the Central African Recognition Medal on 737 officers and men of RDF serving in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in CAR, for their professionalism and contribution to peace and stability of the country.

The medal, like many other awards bestowed on Rwandan peacekeepers, indicates that the RDF takes its international responsibility as an active member of the international community seriously.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw