A total of 25 senior officers of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) on Monday, March 21 began the United Nations staff officers’ course at the Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA) in Musanze District. The UN Staff Officers Training of Trainers Course is organized by the RPA in collaboration with the British Peace Support Team - Africa and the UN Integrated Training Service (ITS). According to the RPA, the purpose of the two-week course, which will be closed on April 1, is to build the capacity of the officers to be able to design, develop, and deliver training to RDF personnel who are earmarked as staff officers to UN peacekeeping operations. The participants will also train military officers from other countries which contribute troops to UN missions. They are being facilitated by trainers from Kenya, Nigeria, Viet Nam and New Zealand. This training of trainers’ course has been organized to enable the RDF to have a pool of competent and effective trainers, who can train a significant number of potential Rwandan staff officers without necessarily relying on external trainers, Col. (Rtd) Jill Rutaremara, the Director of the Academy said. As he opened the training on Monday, Fodé Ndiaye, the UN Resident Coordinator, said Rwanda is in the right place to carry out the UN staff officers training. First, it is important to hold this training because peace is really the cornerstone of the UN; and secondly, Rwanda is a top contributor of UN peacekeeping forces, Ndiaye said. We thank the Rwanda Peace Academy for hosting the training and the British Government for providing a team that will support this training. With 5278 forces deployed in different peacekeeping missions, Rwanda is the fourth largest troop contributor, after Bangladesh, Nepal and India. Ndiaye commended the behaviour of Rwandan troops who have taken part in different UN peacekeeping missions. Rwanda is not only one of the top troop contributors, the behaviour of Rwandan troops is also commendable; and the UN praises the values and principles of Rwandan troops, he said.
