Rwanda National Police

Rwandan Police and military peacekeepers serving in various UN missions around the world, this Sunday, joined the rest of Rwandan community in the Diaspora to vote for their representatives in the parliament.

Rwanda National Police (RNP) peacekeepers are deployed to Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan, Haiti, South Sudan, and Abyei where they voted from.

In CAR, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Sam Rumanzi, the commander of the Rwandan Formed Police Unit (RWAFPU1), said that "we turned up with enthusiasm in an early voting exercise."

There are 450 Rwandan Police peacekeepers serving under the  United Nations Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in CAR (MINUSCA), with 420 organised in three contingents; two FPUs and a Protection Support Unit (PSU), each composed of 140 officers.

Others serve as Individual Police Officers (IPOs) who act as advisors and mentors.

"We are here for a peacekeeping duty; it means that we had to be at polling centres very early to exercise our civic rights, but also ensure that our peacekeeping duties are not affected in anyway," ACP Rumanzi said.

Polling centres in CAR included Combattant (RwandaFPU1), Mamica (PSU), polling centre C in Kaga bandoro and other centres in Rwanda military peacekeepers' based camps.

In South Sudan, ACP Emmanuel Karasi, FPU contingent commander, also said that 587 police officers in FPU1, FPU2, FPU3 and 27 IPOs and one on professional officer cast their vote. 

The polling centres also served  some members of the Rwandan community.

"Everything went smoothly as expected. We are now back in our sites to continue our peacekeeping responsibilities," ACP Karasi said.

RNP, which started peacekeeping deployments in 2005 currently has about 1,200 officers serving as peacekeepers in all mission.