KANOMBE -The body of an RDF soldier who died recently in Sudan’s troubled region of Darfur was flown home at midday yesterday.

An eerie silence and sorrow gripped those who received the casket at Kigali International Airport, as a Kenya Airways plane carrying the body of the late Sergeant Andrew Rutikanga touched the tarmac.

The deceased’s wife Bonifrida Mukarugwiza, their children and other relatives were among those at the airport.

Amid a solemn mood and hymn played by the military brass band, Brigadier General Jerome Ngendahimana, the Security Adviser to the Chief of General Staff, and other military officers led mourners in receiving the casket.

The Military Spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara said that the fallen soldier died of natural illness on December 16.

"He was in the company of other soldiers but he later felt unwell and he went to sleep, and the next day he was found dead,” Ruteremara said.

Major Ephraim Ruzibiza, the commander of the company in which the fallen soldier served accompanied the body from Darfur.

Rutikanga, 40, is survived by a wife and four children.
His family lives in Karongi District, Western Province.

He has been serving in RDF’s 25th battalion (based in Karongi), which left for Darfur about a month ago, under the command of Lt. Col. Paul Nyemazi.

The battalion is deployed in Darfur’s Sector One (North Sector) in Umukadada.

Sgt. Rutikanga is the ninth Rwandan soldier to die in the war-torn region since the first RDF deployment in Darfur in August, 2004.

Rwanda maintains at least 3,500 peacekeepers in Darfur, where a conflict that started in February 2003 has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and left millions others homeless.

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