Gabiro, 28 August 2019

The Rwanda Defence Force Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Patrick Nyamvumba, together with Peter Vrooman, the US Ambassador to Rwanda have today presided over, the closing ceremony of the two-week multinational/multidimensional exercise codenamed ‘Exercise Shared Accord 2019’ at the Combat Training Centre -Gabiro.

While closing the exercise, Gen Nyamvumba said, “The responsibility to protect civilians lies at the heart of modern peacekeeping and the increasing complexity of field situations requires that you, as peacekeepers, embrace cooperation, coordination, consensus and work in an integrated manner so as to improve and speed up delivery in armed conflicts.’’

Gen Nyamvumba noted that Rwanda particularly recognises the value and potential impact of this particular exercise and future similar ones and is honoured to support the task of training and preparing forces to deploy on peacekeeping missions, adding that Rwanda and RDF remain committed to supporting world peace and security whenever required.

Amb Peter Vrooman, in his remarks during the event thanked the Government of Rwanda and RDF for hosting SA19 for the second time in a row.

“Am honoured to join in the closing of Exercise SA19 as we recognise one of the largest peacekeeping exercises held on the continent. The exercise fosters collaboration between nations, military/police and civilians.”

“Your country plays an essential role in regional security as one of the largest troop and police contributing countries”, Amb Vrooman added.

SA19 is committed to foster partnership with African countries to develop military interoperability between participating nations.

RDF’s Brig Gen JB Ngiruwonsanga and USARAF’s Brig Gen Lapthe C. Flora, the exercise directors lauded the participants for their contribution toward the success of SA19.

The exercise comprised of three phases that included the academic phase aimed at enhancing participants’ understanding of the UN system and conduct of the peace operations, the Military Component Planning Process (MCPP), the Command Post Exercise and a Field Training Exercise based on the selected course of action and with more than 200 scenarios exercised.

1200 Military/Police personnel and civilians from 25 countries have been trained to Command and Control a realistic multinational/multidimensional Peace Operations in accordance with UN/AU standards.