UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has said he is committed to taking action to make peacekeeping operations of the global organisation safer and more effective in today’s challenging environments. He said this in his special message on the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, celebrated every year on May 29.

The day is organised to pay tribute to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve in UN peacekeeping operations. This year, he said, he will spend International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers in Mali to express his solidarity with colleagues facing high casualties and enormous volatility. "As we recognize a legacy of service and sacrifice around the world, I am also committed to taking action for peacekeeping — action to make our operations safer and more effective in today’s challenging environments,” reads part of Guterres’ message. "We also are committed to reinforcing the important role our forces must play in promoting human rights and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse. On May 29, 1948, the United Nations Security Council authorized the first UN peacekeeping operation – the UN Truce Supervision Organisation in the Middle East. On this 70th anniversary, Guterres said, "we express our gratitude to the more than one million men and women who have served under the UN flag, saving countless lives.” "And we pay tribute to the fourteen missions working around the clock today to protect people and advance the cause of peace.” The theme for the 2018 International Day of UN Peacekeepers is "70 Years of Service and Sacrifice.” The day also serves to honour the more than 3,700 peacekeepers who have lost their lives serving under the UN flag since 1948, including 134 who passed on last year.

Among the 134 peacekeepers killed on mission last year include three Rwandans. Ten years after stopping the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) deployed the first peacekeepers, in August 2004, to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) – a mission then mandated to curtail the humanitarian catastrophe that was boiling in the western part of the Sudan, in Darfur. The first 155 Rwandan soldiers, some having participated in the military campaign that stopped the 1994 Genocide, were a launch pad for Rwanda's participation in world peacekeeping missions. To date, continuously driven by the painful experience of the 1990-1994 liberation war and the 1994 Genocide, RDF continues to dedicate personnel and other resources in such peacekeeping missions.

Rwanda also maintains police peacekeepers to different countries including Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Haiti.