Rwanda, Malawi armed forces commit to strengthen ties

A delegation of five Senior Officials from Malawi Defence Forces (MDF) led by the Deputy Chief of Defence Forces arrived in Rwanda on Tuesday for a three-day study tour aimed at exchanging best practices between MDF and Rwanda Defence Force (RDF).

After a courtesy call to the RDF Chief of Defence Staff and a presentation on Roles and Functions of the RDF, Lieutenant General Vincent Nundwe, the MDF Deputy Chief of Defence Foces told the media at RDF Headquarters that their tour was aimed at learning staff functions between Rwanda Defence Force and the Ministry of Defence.

“We are undergoing functional review back home in Malawi, our Chief of Defence Forces told us to come and learn from our brothers here in Rwanda on staff functions between RDF and the Ministry of Defence, on how they are functioning together”, the Malawi Defence Forces Deputy Commander said.

Lieutenant General Vincent Nundwe and General Nyamvumba Patrick

Gen Nundwe noted also that the delegation discussed with the RDF Chief of Defence Staff the existing exchange of students programme based on the memorandum of understanding on training cooperation between the two Defence Forces.“We have a memorandum of understanding between MDF and RDF in terms of training and operations, Rwanda has been offering three slots to send our students to come and train here, we came here also to thank Rwanda for their continued support in terms of training; as a token of appreciation, we are arranging to invite more Rwandese to come and train in Malawi”.

At genocide memorial

Gen Nundwe who was serving in the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) in 1994  and his delegation visited also Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre and paid tribute to Victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. After the tour at Genocide Memorial, Gen Nundwe said that what he witnessed during the Genocide was strange for human being. “It was very strange for human being to behave like that…taking somebody’s human life because of differences I found it very strange for human being to behave like that, human life is something else…”, he recalled what he saw during the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda as UNAMIR Military Observer.

Before concluding the study tour, the Malawian Delegation accompanied with Malawian Defence Attaché to Rwanda Col Kondwani Kalino will visit on 11 January the RDF Command and Staff College in Musanze District.