Musanze, 14 October 2018 The Rwanda Peace Academy in collaboration with the Nordic Defense Cooperation (NORDEFCO) and the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) is hosting the African Integrated Crisis Management Course. This course is aimed at enhancing the knowledge and understanding of integrated crisis management approaches, as well as to improve collaboration and coordination among different actors, namely; the military, civilian crisis management, humanitarian and development actors. The African Integrated Crisis Management course started on October, 14 at Rwanda Peace Academy in Musanze district. The official opening ceremony was presided over by the Joint Chief of Staff at the Eastern Africa Standby Force Planning Element, Maj Gen Charles Rudakubana.
In his opening remarks, Maj Gen Charles Rudakubana urged participants to work for a common goal despite their different backgrounds. “Some of you have experience in the conduct of multidimensional peace support operations where different actors have different interests. In this course you will learn how to overcome those obstacles and work for a common goal,” said Maj Gen Rudakubana.
He told participants that it is imperative for them to put their efforts into this course in order to get maximum knowledge. The course attracted 46 participants, from the military, police as well as civilians from eight countries under EASF. The countries are Comoros, the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and hosts Rwanda. Col. Jill Rutaremara, the director of Rwanda peace academy, said that the course was vital since it attracted participants who carry out a wide range of roles in peacekeeping missions, which need to be harmonised so that the mission bears positive fruits. He also noted that “it’s important to train together, exercise together and carry out joint planning and analysis. I am therefore happy to note that the military, police and civilians from different countries are all represented on this course” Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA) is a regional peacekeeping training and research institution under the Ministry of Defence. It is recognized by the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) as one of its regional peacekeeping training centres. .