New UN force commander arrives in South Sudan

File photo: General Frank Mushyo Kamanzi (UNAMID)

The new force commander of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Lt. General Frank Mushyo Kamanzi of Rwanda, arrived in Juba on Monday to take up his new assignment.

The new force commander of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Lt. General Frank Mushyo Kamanzi of Rwanda, arrived in Juba on Monday to take up his new assignment.

The arrival of Kamanzi, who replaces Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki of Kenya, who was sacked in October last year, was announced by the head of UNMISS, David Shearer on Monday.

Kamanzi, who commands a force with an authorized strength of 17,000 peacekeepers drawn from 55 different countries, brings to the position over 28 years of national and international military experience.

He is a graduate of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji, Nigeria, and the Nanjing Army Command College in China.

A former Rwandan army chief of staff, Lt-Gen Kamanzi served as force commander of the UN mission in Sudan's Darfur region (UNAMID).

Gen. Kamanzi has a Master’s degree in national security strategy from the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Makerere University in Kampala.