Rwanda Peacekeepers take over the protection of CAR Elected President

mchambawima1

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Oct 16, 2014
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Rwanda Defence Force Peacekeepers (Rwanbatt3) serving in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) has taken over from Rwanda's Police Protection and Support Unit the responsibilities of providing security to the Central African Republic (CAR) new elected President, HE Faustin Archange TOUADERA. The Rwanbatt3 will also remain in charge of providing security to the interim President Her Excellence Madame Catherine SAMBA PANZA.

Rwanda Police Peacekeepers Contingent (PSU) has been in charge of HE Faustin Touadera’s security since 8 January 2016, when CAR elections went on second run-off with Mr. Touadera as one of the two contestants for the CAR Presidency. Since then Rwanda Police Contingent successfully provided security to the elected President.

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Rwanbatt3 is tasked -among other duties-to provide full protection to the new CAR elected President, including providing security at his the Office, at the presidential palace and wherever he is present.

During the hand over-take over ceremony, the Rwanda Police was represented by the SSP Paul BUTERA (operations Officer), on behalf of ACP Benoit KAYIJUKA the Commanding Officer of the Protection Support Unit (PSU), and the Rwanbatt3 by Maj Epimaque KAYITARE (Operations Officer) and Maj Santos KANAMUGIRE, Commanding the Company in Charge of the CAR presidential Security.


Source: Rwandan News
 
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© AFP file photo | A United Nations vehicle in the Central African Republic

Text by NEWS WIRES

Latest update : 2016-03-29

The United Nations said on Monday it had received new allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation against U.N. peacekeepers from Morocco and Burundi in Central African Republic, including one that involved a 14-year-old girl.
There have been dozens of such accusations against peacekeepers in Central African Republic, where the U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSCA, assumed authority from African Union troops in September 2014.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Burundian peacekeepers had been accused of raping a 14-year-old girl earlier this month, while a Moroccan soldier had been accused of engaging in an exploitative sexual relationship with a woman in February.

Dujarric said Morocco and Burundi had been notified of the allegations. Once notified, a state has 10 days to tell the United Nations if it intends to investigate the accusations. If it does not, the world body will conduct its own inquiry.

“The Moroccans so far have indicated that they will investigate,” Dujarric said.

A U.N. peacekeeping spokesman said Burundi had until the end of the week to report back on whether it could conduct an inquiry.

The United Nations pledged to crack down on allegations of abuse to avoid a repeat of past mistakes. The previous head of the U.N. mission in Central African Republic, Babacar Gaye, resigned last August and some 800 Congolese peacekeepers were repatriated last month.

The United Nations reported 99 allegations of sexual exploitation or sexual abuse involving U.N. staff members across the U.N. system last year, a sharp increase from the 80 allegations in 2014. The majority, 69, involved personnel in 10 peacekeeping missions.

The United Nations currently has 106,000 troops and police serving in 16 peacekeeping missions.

Allegations of sexual abuse have also made against European troops deployed in Central African Republic. French troops have been in the country since December 2013, while European Union troops were there from April 2014 to March 2015.

In December, an independent review panel accused the United Nations and its agencies of grossly mishandling allegations of child sexual abuse by international peacekeepers in Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014.

Dujarric said on Monday the U.N. mission in Central African Republic had also received new allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. and non-U.N. forces and civilians in the Kemo prefecture that occurred in 2014 and 2015.

He said the mission would send a team to the area to gather information.

(REUTERS)

Date created : 2016-03-29
 
There is an ongoing problem with sexual assault in the U.S. military which has received extensive media coverage in the past several years. A 2012 Pentagon survey found that approximately 26,000 women and men were sexually assaulted. Of those, only 3,374 cases were reported. In 2013, a new Pentagon report found that 5,061 troops reported cases of assault. Many people are optimistic that this 50% increase in reports is indicative of victims "growing more comfortable in the system." Of these reported, however, only 484 cases went to trial, and only 376 resulted in convictions.[1] Ninety percent of the assault victims were eventually involuntarily discharged.[2] Another investigation found that only one in five females and one in 15 males in the United States Air Force would report having been sexually assaulted by service members.[3]

Incidents which have been publicized include the Tailhook scandal in 1991, the Aberdeen scandal in 1996 and the 2003 US Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal. In an attempt to deal with this problem, the Defense Department has issued theDepartment of Defense Sexual Assault Response policy. A provision in the fiscal 2004 National Defense Authorization Act required investigation and reporting regarding sexual harassment and assault at the United States military academies. A report was published in the New York Times magazine in March 2007 which surveyed women soldiers' experience in the Iraq War showing significant incidence of post traumatic stress syndrome resulting from the combination of combat stress andsexual assault.[4] 15% of female veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have visited a Veterans Affairs (VA) facility have screened positive for military sexual trauma.[5]
 
Congolese troops killed two United Nations peacekeepers after civilians accused the Tanzanian U.N. troops of providing supplies to Islamist Ugandan rebels in east Congo, according to a confidential U.N. Security Council report.

U.N. experts who monitor sanctions on Democratic Republic of Congo said the U.N. peacekeeping force MONUSCO initially blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Ugandan rebels operating in Congo since the 1990s, for a May 5 ambush that killed two peacekeepers and several civilians and injured 26 U.N. troops.

But the group of experts said it was not an ambush and that Congolese troops (FARDC) fired at peacekeepers near the Mayi Moya town in Beni after "they had been told by two civilians that the Tanzanians were providing supplies to the ADF."

The experts wrote in a report, seen by Reuters this week, that the Tanzanian troops had met the ADF but the group is "not in a position to explain why."

Tanzania's defense minister, Hussein Mwinyi, told Reuters he had not seen the U.N. report and therefore could not immediately comment. MONUSCO spokesman Felix Basse said he was unaware of the U.N. experts' report and declined immediate comment, while the FARDC spokesman General Leon Kasonga said he did not have any information about the incident.

More than a decade after the formal end to regional conflicts in eastern Congo that killed millions of people, most from hunger and disease, dozens of armed groups are still exploiting its natural resources and attacking local people.

The U.N. experts report casts doubt on a near blanket attribution of recent attacks near Beni on the ADF. The Congolese government and United Nations have blamed the ADF for murdering hundreds of civilians near Beni since 2014. They estimate the group's size to be a few hundred fighters.

Independent analysts have pointed to mounting evidence that other armed groups are responsible for at least some of the attacks. Local residents have accused the Congolese army and peacekeeping units of complicity with the ADF, charges both forces deny.

The U.N. experts are also investigating a Nov. 29 attack, which they believe was carried out by the ADF in collaboration with another armed group, on the town of Eringeti, during which one Malawian peacekeeper and several civilians were killed.

"The group obtained information that the commander of the FARDC in Eringeti was aware that an attack on the town was going to take place," wrote the U.N. experts, adding that a Congolese military prosecutor has opened a case against the commander.



(Additional reporting by Aaron Ross in Kinshasa and Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala in Tanzania; Editing by Alistair Bell)
 
If this is the case the next president of Central African Republic will be a RWANDESE.
 
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