Rwandan Defence Forces - Land Forces

Land Forces

A number of sources, including Gerard Prunier, document U.S. aid to the RPA before the First Congo War. The officially admitted part of the training was Joint Combined Exchange Training. Prunier strongly implies the United States supplied communications equipment, vehicles, boots, and medicines to the RPA before the war began and after it broke out, delivered second-hand Warsaw Pact weapons and ammunition either directly to Goma or by airdrop along the AFDL front lines. He reports that after the war's outbreak, the United States Air Force had switched from using C-141 Starlifters and C-5 Galaxys to deliver the non-lethal aid to Kigali Airport and Entebbe Airport, to airdrops by C-130 Hercules aircraft.

From July 1994 until December 1997 the RPA had six brigades, as designated in the Arusha Accords: 402nd in Kigali and Kigali Rurale Prefecture; 201st in Kibungo, Umatura, and Byumba Prefectures; 301st in Butare, Gikongoro, and Cyangugu Prefectures; 305th in Gitatama and Kibuye Prefectures; and 211th in Gisenyi and Ruhengeri Prefectures. The brigade boundaries mirrored the political administrative boundaries, which often complicated military operations. During the First Congo War the brigade headquarters remained inside Rwanda but directed operations inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Jane's World Armies said in July 2009 that 'the RDF is deployed to protect the country's borders and defend against external aggression. There are four divisions, each deploying three brigades:

• 1 Division, based at Kigali, covers the central and east region;
• 2 Division, based at Byumba, covers the north and east region;
• 3 Division, based at Gisenyi, covers the northwest region; and
• 4 Division, based at Butare, covers the southwest region.'

The Cyangungu Military Camp (alternative spelling seems to be Cyangugu) has been reported to house the 31st Brigade of the 4th Division of the Rwandan Defence Forces.

Lieutenant General Charles Kayonga is the Chief of Defence Staff of the Rwandese Defence Forces.

Many soldiers from the former Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), the national army under the previous regime, have been incorporated into the RDF since 1994. This process began soon after the genocide in January 1995, when several former FAR officers were given high positions in the new armed forces: Colonel Marcel Gatsinzi became the Deputy Chief of Staff of the RPA, Colonel Balthazar Ndengeyinka became commander of the 305th Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Laurent Munyakazi took command of the 99th battalion, and LTC Emmanuel Habyarimana became an RPA member of parliament and the director for training in the Ministry of Defence. Gatsinzi later became Director of Security and then Ministry of Defence in 2002.