Local authorities urged to utilize ex-combatants’ skills

MUSANZE – Local authorities should tap into the skills of ex-combatants and integrate them in district development activities and mainstream national programmes, an official with the Rwanda Demobilisation and Re-integration Commission (RDRC) has said.Francis Musoni, the National Coordinator, RDRC, was speaking at a meeting of district vice mayors and officials in charge of social affairs.He called for a comprehensive action plan which will include ex-combatants. “We need to have them fully absorbed into the socioeconomic fabric, we call on local leaders and partners to discuss integration of former fighters with various entrepreneurial skills,” Musoni said.There are over 10,000 ex-combatants in the Northern Province grouped in at least 25 cooperatives in which they are involved in different activities, including community activities such as making gabions to protect the Virunga area from floods.The meeting reviewed the accessibility of ex-combatants to mainstream social protection and development service delivery at the grassroots level. “They are scattered all over, they need to be supported to feel to be part of the community, to find jobs… there are those without houses and health insurance,” said Clemence Niyonteze, the provincial Reintegration Officer.Jean Berchmans Ndikumana, a founder member of Coovatramo, a motorcycle-taxi cooperative, who trained in cooperative management, said he has risen from nothing to owning three motorcycles.