Musanze– 26 September 2022

The Prevention of Recruitment and Use of Children as Soldiers Basic Course started  today at the Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA) training facility in Musanze and will run up to 30 September 2022.The course is jointly organized by the Ministry of Defence, the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security and the Rwanda Peace Academy.

Ten (10) French speaking officers from the Rwanda Defence Force and ten (10) officers from the Rwanda National Police (RNP) will attend the course. The aim of the course is to increase the RDF and the RNP officers’ capacity to understand keyways in preventing the recruitment of children as soldiers in armed conflicts, learn to better interact with children and child soldiers when deployed in mission areas as well as learning to identify early warning signs of recruitment.  

On 13 June 2022, the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Rwanda and the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security renewed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding on the prevention of the recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts in Africa and around the globe.