140 members of the Rwanda National Police are on their way to Haiti for a UN peacekeeping mission under the Formed Police Unit, CEOAFRICA gathered from Kigali.

The officers, including 14 women, will be in the Central American island for the next one year. They will replace their 160 colleagues who have since completed their tour of duty of a similar duration and are deployed at the Haitian town of Jeremie.

The peacekeepers were seen off by the Force’s top officials led by Inspector-General of Police, Emmanuel Gasana.

Speaking at the farewell ceremony, the Commissioner for Public Relations and Community Policing, Theos Badege, urged the peacekeepers to be good ambassadors of the country.

“You have to maintain discipline and work hard for the benefit of Haitians to ensure that by the time you complete your tour of duty, they are better off than how you found them,” he said.

Apart from their primary aim of safeguarding the nationals, the officers also engage in developmental activities such as community work, building capacity of the Haitian Police, as well as rallying the youth in various areas of development.

Rwanda is the sixth leading troop contributor to UN peacekeeping missions, with more than 3,200 troops in UN African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur, and 850 with UNMISS in South Sudan. The country also maintains about 500 Police officers in peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan and Cote d’ Ivoire.