Mbaye Diagne (officer)

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Mbaye Diagne (born March 18, 1958 , † May 31, 1994 in Kigali ) was a Senegalese army officer with the rank of captain and military observer of the United Nations during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 . During his mission in Rwanda , he was able to save numerous people in almost non-stop rescue operations and at high personal risk.

He grew up as a devout Muslim in a family of eleven on the outskirts of Dakar . After graduating from the Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar , he joined the Senegalese army as an officer. In 1993 he was appointed to UNAMIR to support the peacekeeping force that was supposed to enforce the Arusha Agreement as a military observer. He was stationed at the Hôtel des Mille Collines , a luxury hotel in the Rwandan capital Kigali .

The deployment in Rwanda

The genocide in Rwanda broke out to its full extent after the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana on the night of April 6, 1994. Radical members of Hutuvolksgruppe , previously peace negotiations with the of Tutsis led Rwandan Patriotic Front had torpedoed so began a previously Implement a plan to assassinate moderate politicians. On the morning of April 6, Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana was killed by soldiers of the Presidential Guard along with her husband. Ten Belgian blue helmet soldiers who had been deployed for their protection were also killed by Rwandan soldiers.

Mbaye Diagne received the first news of the Prime Minister's murder from people taking refuge in the Hôtel des Mille Collines. For more information, Mbaye went unarmed to the prime minister's apartment, where he found Agathe Uwilingiyimana's four surviving children. There he was met by the UNAMIR commander Roméo Dallaire , who was also trying to find out more information about the Prime Minister's whereabouts. Dallaire told Mbaye to wait for a transport tank, but it didn't arrive. It can be assumed that Mbaye smuggled the children back to the Hôtel des Mille Collines in the back seat of his jeep.

Although UNAMIR officials were forbidden from rescuing civilians directly and escorting them to safer areas, Mbaye Diagne continued such actions on her own. The head of the humanitarian operation in Rwanda said: "Here is someone who is out of line and [the general] is not going to reprimand him for doing the right thing." The number given by Mbaye Diagne Rescued people vary between “several dozen” and “at least a hundred”. Since he had to pass numerous checkpoints of the Rwandan army and the Hutu militias Impuzamugambi and Interahamwe during his rescue operations , Mbaye transported a maximum of five refugees on each journey. As he passed the post, his extensive contacts and ability to relax the situation with jokes helped him. In various cases he bribed soldiers and irregulars with small sums of money or cigarettes.

On May 31, 1994 Mbaye Daigne's jeep was just missed by a mortar shell when he was on his way back to the UN headquarters in Kigali with a message from the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army Augustin Bizimungu to Roméo Dallaire . However, several shrapnel broke through the rear window of the off-road vehicle, struck Mbaye in the back of the head and killed him on the spot. The grenade was fired by the Rwandan Patriotic Front at a checkpoint of the Rwandan armed forces.

Mbaye Daigne was buried with full military honors in Senegal. He left a wife and two children.

Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal

On May 8, 2014, the United Nations Security Council established the Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal in Resolution 2154 for extraordinary bravery.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Man Everyone Remembers by Greg Barker, "Ghosts of Rwanda" contribution, PBS Frontline
  2. ↑ Memories of Captain Mbaye Diagne by Babacar Faye, "Ghosts of Rwanda" contribution, PBS Frontline
  3. ↑ a b c Roméo Dallaire : Handshake with the devil: The global community's complicity in the genocide in Rwanda. To Klampen 2008, ISBN 978-3-86674-023-5 .
  4. ↑ a b Memories of Captain Mbaye Diagne by Gregory Alex, "Ghosts of Rwanda" contribution, PBS frontline
  5. ↑ Memories of Captain Mbaye Diagne by Mark Doyle, "Ghosts of Rwanda" contribution, PBS-Frontline
  6. ↑ Resolutions and Statements of the Security Council 2014
personal data
SURNAME Diagne, Mbaye
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Senegalese officer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1994
Place of death Kigali , Rwanda