The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) has lately featured prominently in the news media around the world, as they report the stunning defeat the Rwandan military together with the armed forces of Mozambique are inflicting on the Islamic State (IS) terrorists who have wreaked havoc in that country for the last four years. And the excitement is understandable given that news of IS terrorists being routed, anywhere, has been hard to come by. Today, Islamic State violent extremists are escalating their horrors, as they expand the terror campaign to the African continent in their deluded pursuit of an equally delusional caliphate. From Mali to Mozambique to other parts of the continent IS is fighting to establish a strong foothold. In April, Mozambican president, Filipe Nyusi, flew to Kigali where he requested President Paul Kagame to provide his country with military support to help fight off IS insurgents who have terrorized the province of Cabo Delgado, cutting off some of the countrys vital cities and seaports for years. After one month, RDF and the Mozambican military have recaptured much of the territory, including Mocímboa da Praia, a vital seaport that served as the terrorist headquarters, as well as their critical supply route. People who were forced to abandon their homes by the Islamists are leaving displaced peoples camps and are reclaiming their property. Maputo is charting out plans to repair the infrastructure, as well as how to quickly restore public utilities. On his return from Kigali, President Nyusi held a news conference at Maputo Airport, and told reporters his decision to seek assistance from Rwanda was informed by the countrys experience in combating terrorism and violent extremism. Clearly, the smiling faces and excitement expressed by ordinary Mozambicans, who were earlier driven from their homes where many of their relatives were killed by the terrorists, vindicate their presidents choice. Local news media too have shared the sense of relief. When Mocimbao da Praia was retaken from the IS, Club of Mozambique an online English publication wrote that recapturing the city which the IS extremist fighters have held for a year is a major victory for the Rwandan soldiers and police who helped spearhead a counteroffensive at the request of Mozambique president Filipe Nyusi. After the fall of Mocimboa da Praia, reporters asked the RDFs chief of operations in the Cabo Delgado war theatre what formula the forces used to dislodge the insurgents in such short order. Brig. Gen. Pascal Muhizi said the unique discipline and resilience, the core distinctive qualities of the RDF, have always accounted for its success. Indeed discipline and resilience are so ingrained in the RDF character, even those who have sought to smear Rwanda often find the truth about the forces professionalism inescapable. Rabid anti-Rwanda propagandist, Michela Wrong, writing about the May 2000 clashes between Rwandan troops and the Uganda army in Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) points out the striking difference, recounted by one Liebeskind who served as the Red Cross representative in the city. Uganda armys Maj. Gen. James Kazini and his forces attacked Rwandan soldiers, at their most vulnerable, as they withdrew from their positions in line with the Lusaka agreement that required both countries troops to pull out of the city. Liebeskind talks of how he can never forget the image where on one hand you have a group of (Rwandan) officers who had won a war from an incredibly weak position, against the odds, sitting sipping milk. On the other hand, an army (Ugandan) whose commanders broke open whisky at 10. a.m., mourning its losses. The RDFs core set of values dates back to its early days as the Rwandan Patriotic Army that fought a successful liberation and brought an end to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. In 1995, Canadian General Romeo Dallaire who was the United Nations (UN) force commander in Rwanda before and during the genocide gave a public lecture at Ryerson University, in Toronto. To say that his mission failed would be an understatement. With the genocide underway, the UN Security Council ordered the withdraw of the peacekeeping force from the country, as western television networks relayed the horrors to their audiences back home. However, General Dallaire stayed and has since been recounting his experience and the depth of the horrors he witnessed in those one hundred days. Towards the end of the presentation, someone in the audience asked the general to help her understand how, from a clearly disadvantaged position with the whole deck stacked against them, including the French troops who were supporting the regimes forces, how the Rwandan Patriotic Army was able to decisively defeat the genocidal army and bring an end to the killings. General Dallaire told her that the military campaign fought by the RPA and its ultimate success to liberate the country against what everyone agreed were insurmountable odds, constitutes an entire course that should be taught in western Staff and Command academies. Today the RPA has evolved into the most dependable professional military in Africa. It is the RDF with better skills and more capacity, many times over, but still guided by the original principles and doctrine. And yes, the force has developed a world-class Command and Staff College that not only trains Rwandan officers but also attracts senior commanders from other African countries. Meanwhile, the Romeo Dallaire institute For Children, Peace and Security has chosen the RDF as a partner to work with because, according to the Institute, Rwanda has become a world leader in peacekeeping, dedicating troops and resources to African Union and United Nations missions in areas where the rights of children are significantly at risk. Since 2004, the government of Rwanda has performed the ultimate Pan-African duty; Ten years after the Genocide against the Tutsi it becomes the first to send troops to the Darfur region of the Sudan where the Janjawid militia were committing atrocities against hundreds of thousands of innocent local inhabitants. Today, calm and peace have, by and large, returned to the region. In the Central African Republic (CAR), thanks to the RDF peace and security have been restored, only a few months after an insurgent rebel militia was threatening to turn the country into a failed state. One month after Kigali sent troops to Mozambique to help that country, the world is breathing a collective sigh of relief as the two countries forces rout the IS extremists who have terrorized the people of that countrys northern province of Cabo Delgado for the last four years. Make no mistake, though, IS and other like-minded terrorist groups primary target has always been the west and its institutions; yet these powers have increasingly shown little interest in doing their fair share in fighting terrorism in Africa. Guided by its strong Pan-Africanist commitment and the bitter lessons left by the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda has not only shown leadership but has also demonstrated how Africans can work together to defeat emerging global threats, especially terrorism. For Rwanda, as Michael Rubin, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute observes security and the need to fight terror and those who would perpetuate genocide is no longer an issue of borders. The world is witnessing that spirit in real-time in Cabo Delgado and perhaps no one expresses it better than the Commander of the Mozambican army, Maj. Gen. Christorao Chume who recently told reporters that We have been working with Rwandan troops for almost a month now and we see progress...Our actions talk more than words.
