UN top official salutes Rwandan peacekeepers

Developing countries should emulate Rwanda’s involvement in peacekeeping missions around the world in order to foster peace, a top UN official has urged.Judy Cheng-Hopkins, the UN Assistant Secretary General for Peace building Support, made the remarks yesterday after holding talks with the Minister of Defence, James Kabarebe, as part of her official visit to the country.“Rwanda is a model country when it comes to professional peacekeeping missions, systematic demobilisation of soldiers and reconciliation processes,” Cheng-Hopkins said during a press briefing.“I have travelled across from Burundi and too many other developing countries, and my message to them is that they should emulate Rwanda’s success in the missions. When a country is out of war, it is particularly not easy to put things together, but Rwanda has tried.”Brigadier General, Charles Rudakubana, the head of the Peace-keeping Department in the Rwanda Defence Forces, said that discussions between the UN official and the Ministry of Defence aimed at fostering cooperation between Rwanda and other nations in peacekeeping.Rwanda was recently ranked as the sixth leading contributor to 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).The country also maintains about 500 police officers deployed in Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leon, Sudan, and South Sudan and Ivory Coast.

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UN top official salutes Rwandan peacekeepers