Kigali 27 June 2018: A Formed Police Unit contingent of 160 officers, majority women, left Kigali International Airport on Wednesday morning. The contingent is composed of 85 women and 75 men who make up a supporting team including; doctors, mechanics and others who will serve different roles for a one-year peacekeeping duty under the UN mission in South Sudan. (UNMISS). The deployment is part of President Paul Kagame’s commitment during the United Nations summit that was held in New York three in 2015. It intends to give extra support to peace keeping operations around the world – that would include a female police force and this is the first time that Rwanda has deployed a contingent headed by a female officer. According to Deputy Inspector General of Police Juvenal Marizamunda, the contingent of female-police unit is the first of its kind that includes a big number of female Police officers deployed for the UN peacekeeping mission.  “For the troubled countries there are several injustices that occur to women and children so this deployment is part of Rwanda’s commitment to ensure international Peace and Gender equality,” -Said the Deputy IGP Marizamunda after giving the peacekeepers a briefing at Kigali International Airport. The contingent commander, ACP Teddy Ruyenzi, said: “We spent more than a year on training and preparing us on the mission mandate and demands, and we are now ready to take up the tasks.” The contingent was also trained on how to support the vulnerable groups like women, girls and children; as the most affected groups in conflicts areas. “Beyond usual physical policing, we will also go an extra mile to be a practical voice in the fight against sexual and gender based violence that is most common in conflict zones.”-added the contingent Commander ACP Teddy Ruyenzi believes that having a majority female contingent speaks a lot on gender equality in her country; it shows that the government believes in women that they can equally do better without feeling inferior because of gender. Until June 2018, Rwanda National Police have so far deployed over 1000 police officers to UN peace keeping missions in Haiti, South Sudan, Central African