Brig Gen Andrew Nyamvumba, Commandant of the Rwanda Defence Force Command and Staff College (RDFCSC), has urged senior military officers who completed the Battlegroup Commanders in Peace Support Operations Training of Trainers Course to actively pass on their knowledge and skills in their respective countries. ALSO READ: COMESA’s civil-military training to foster aviation sector synergy The course, which ran from September 8 to 19, brought together seventeen senior officers from Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, along with representatives from the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) Headquarters. Speaking at the official closing of the two-week course at the Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA) in Musanze on Friday September 19, Nyamvumba said the training had not only provided participants with technical knowledge but also equipped them with the confidence to teach and mentor future peacekeepers. “This course has equipped you with the requisite subject matter, tools of analysis, and the procedural and conceptual steps that a trainer goes through before, during, and after delivering training,” Nyamvumba said. “You now have the required knowledge, skills, and confidence that a trainer must have. Congratulations!” ALSO READ: African military training must bridge digital divide, says Gen Muganga He emphasized that the ultimate goal of the training was to build a strong pool of trainers capable of preparing battlegroup commanders for peace support operations (PSO) across the region. Beyond the classroom, participants visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial and the Campaign Against Genocide Museum, which Nyamvumba said offered “a powerful understanding of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and Rwanda’s path to healing and reconciliation.” He also thanked the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) for funding the course, the facilitators for effective delivery, and the Rwanda Ministry of Defence and Rwanda Defence Force for their continued support. Funded by the APSA and jointly organized by the RPA and the EASF Secretariat, the course aimed to build a pool of skilled trainers capable of mentoring future PSO commanders and strengthening the region’s collective readiness to respond to security challenges.
