Ted Feifer and Keith Bowen led a third workshop for Rwandan Defense Force officers preparing an infantry battalion for deployment with the United Nations/African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). The training was conducted in partnership with the Department of State's African Contingency Operations and Training Assistance Program (ACOTA).
February 2009
Ted Feifer and Keith Bowen led a third workshop for Rwandan Defense Force officers preparing an infantry battalion for deployment with the United Nations/African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). The training was conducted in partnership with the Department of State's African Contingency Operations and Training Assistance Program (ACOTA). The workshop was held February 9-11, 2009 at the Rwandan Defense Force Military Academy at Gako, one hour's drive south of Kigali.
The 41 participants included the battalion commander and his subordinate officers. The workshop focused on developing and improving core conflict management and resolution skills for military officers deploying as peacekeepers. Program objectives were to develop and build analytical, communication, negotiation and third party skills; strengthen problem solving in individual and group situations; and share lessons learned in the prevention, management and resolution of conflict. Participants took part in role-plays involving meetings with leaders in internally displaced persons camps, analytical and operational problem solving using an IDP camp riot as the scenario, cross-cultural communication, the use of interpreters, and a final complex, multiparty crisis simulation with a Darfur-like context.
Participants found the training highly relevant to their forthcoming mission, many noting that this was their first introduction to the use of negotiation and third party skills. Several also stressed that the training was highly realistic and gave them confidence to dealing with the types of complex conflict situations they were likely to face in Darfur.
Explore Further
- Training Rwandan Peacekeepers for Darfur
USIP In the Field | February 2011
