Kigali (Rwanda), 9 November 2011 - UNAMID Joint Special Representative Ibrahim Gambari and Force Commander Patrick Nyamvumba (of Rwanda) joined several heads of African States at a major conference which opened yesterday in Kigali on post-conflict peacebuilding, during which Rwanda is to share lessons from its transition to a sustainable peace.

“The amazing path which Rwanda has undertaken to not only recover from horrendous violence, but also to have attained many of the attributes of a stable and successful nation serves as a remarkable model to other areas in Africa currently recovering from conflict and seeking a peaceful horizon,” said JSR Gambari, who leads the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur and is also the Interim Joint Chief Mediator for the Darfur peace process.

JSR Gambari also expressed his deep condolences directly to the President and Government of Rwanda and to the families, colleagues and friends of two Rwandan peacekeepers, killed in an attack on their patrol 10 October in the Zamzam Internally Displaced Persons camp in Darfur. “They paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect civilians and help bring about peace in a region that has suffered far too deeply,” he said.


United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement for the conference that: “Rwanda suffered one of the most violent conflicts of the 20th century, yet has since become one of the world’s top twenty performers in progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Since the 1990s, infant mortality has been halved, and primary school enrolment has increased from 68 per cent to over 96 per cent.  These achievements are the result of a combination of strong national ownership, local solutions, constructive ties with donors, and the empowerment of talented individuals to implement priority poverty reduction programmes.”

Peacebuilding, he said, “involves addressing some of the most sensitive issues facing a given society – issues that have previously proved so charged and intractable that they led to violent conflict. The peacebuilding efforts of the United Nations are an essential tool in preventing the recurrence of large-scale violence.”

The UN Peacebuilding Commission helps countries emerging from conflict to make an irreversible transition from war to peace by assembling relevant national and international stakeholders in mutually agreed upon steps and activities.  Rwanda has served as chair of the Peacebuilding Commission for the past year.

Communication and Public Information Division Media Contacts
Kemal Saïki, Director; saiki@un.org; tel.: +249 (0) 92 244 3529; mobile: +249 (0) 92 241 0020

Susan Manuel, Deputy director, manuels@un.org, mobile: +249 (0)92 241 0274