Rwandan troops leave for peacekeeping mission in Sudan

April 27, 2006 (KIGALI) — A contingent of 67 Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) troops have been airlifted to Sudan’s troubled region of Darfur on an AU peacekeeping mission.

Rwandan soldiers belonging to the African Union force wait to board a plane to be dispatched to the Darfur region of Sudan.

The departure coincides with the return of some other 67 RDF troops who had been on the same mission to Sudan.

While addressing the members of the Rwanda Defence Force, the CGS, Gen James Kabarebe, according to military sources, said that the six-months assignment by the AU is in recognition of the excellent skills and discipline that have been exhibited by the Rwanda Defence Force troops while they were carrying out their peacekeeping duties in the conflict-torn region of Darfur and in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

Earlier, in a related incident, another contingent of RDF troops and the national police left on the same mission to the Comoros islands and Liberia to engage in an election observation assignment.

Apart from the Rwanda Defence Force soldiers in Darfur and Khartoum, 50 officials of the national police are in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum keeping law and order under the UN Mission in the Sudan, UNMIS, and the AU Mission in Sudan, AMIS.

(ST)