A Rwandan police officer who has been serving under the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti died on Wednesday in the town of Jeremie on Haiti’s western coast, police said. The deceased officer has been identified as Hassan Bisangwa, 34.According to the Police spokesperson Supt Theos Badege, Bisangwa died after his colleague whom they were together on their routine night duty shot him accidentally. “We are working closely with United Nations and the family of the deceased to return the body soon,” Badege said.Badege said the suspect whose name has been withheld escaped but the search for him by UN police is on.The deceased is survived by a wife and two children. According to police, since their deployment, this is the first such incident to happen.Rwanda has about 160 UN police peacekeepers in Haiti under the auspice Formed Protection 2.Meanwhile, a police source said the current batch of Rwandan peacekeepers in Haiti will be coming back next week, on September 28, after completing a nine-month tour of duty. They will be replaced by the same number that will be heading to Haiti on September 27.Rwanda was recently ranked 6th among the leading contributors of UN peacekeepers in the world, with about 3,200 soldiers in the United Nations African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur, (UNAMID) and 850 in South Sudan under the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). It also maintains about 500 police officers in various missions around the world.They aare deployed in countries such as Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leon, Sudan, and South Sudan as well as Ivory Coast.
