Maj Gen (Rtd) Yaache from Ghana was part of the African contingent serving under the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR).
He recalled that when the UN Security Council decided to reduce the number of its troops in Rwanda to just 270 soldiers in 1994, both UNAMIR commander Gen Roméo Dallaire and Ghanaian Gen Henry Kwami Anyidoho opposed the move, warning of the dangers facing the Tutsi population.
Despite the withdrawal, some Ghanaian soldiers under Gen Anyidoho chose to remain behind and displayed remarkable courage by protecting thousands of Tutsis with very limited equipment and manpower. During the genocide, Ghanaian peacekeepers managed to rescue around 30,000 people.
Yaache first arrived in Rwanda in February 1994, two months before the genocide erupted. He was responsible for monitoring operations in Byumba prefecture, a demilitarized zone. Once the killings began, he played a key role in evacuating Tutsi civilians, helping them find food, and relocating them to safer areas.
Speaking to Rwandan youth recently, Yaache explained that UNAMIR's mandate was to oversee the peace process between the Rwandan government of President Juvénal Habyarimana, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and allied parties.
The peacekeepers were supposed to prevent violations of the accords and report any threats to peace back to the UN but Yaache highlighted that signs of impending dangers were ignored.
'Even from the field, I could see dark clouds of uncertainty forming, the same was true in the capital. The General pleaded with the UN, warning them that signs of looming trouble were evident.'
Gen Dallaire's ignored warnings
On January 10, 1994, Gen Dallaire informed superiors at the UN Headquarters, warning that genocide was being planned and requesting permission to seize hidden weapons meant for the Interahamwe militia.
Instead of authorizing action, UN officials instructed him to share the intelligence with the very authorities accused of preparing the killings.
The following day, Dallaire was told by senior UN officials, including Kofi Annan, not to act outside his mandate. He was advised instead to inform President Habyarimana.
'This showed that the mission was fully aware of the trouble that was brewing. We saw the telltale signs. Not from the very beginning, but as events unfolded, there was no shortage of warnings, and the UN's attention was repeatedly drawn to them,' Yaache stressed.
When the genocide began in April 1994, the UN again failed to act decisively, even hesitating to recognize the killings as genocide.
The situation worsened after Belgian troops withdrew from UNAMIR, leaving thousands of Tutsis in the arms of Interahamwe militia, including those massacred at the École Technique Officielle (ETO) in Kicukiro.
IGIHE
