Abstract
- French soldiers engaged in Operation Turquoise spent their first night in Rwanda. In the south-west of the country they will take charge of Tutsi refugee camps.
- French forces entered Rwanda. Quartered in a city in the south-west of the country, they will help thousands of Tutsi civilians who have taken refuge in camps to flee the massacres which continue.
- In Kigali, very violent fighting opposes government forces to the Rwandan Patriotic Front, while the French assess the humanitarian needs.
- The 500 French soldiers stationed at the Zairian border are ready to return to Rwanda to establish protected areas there pending the arrival of 1,200 reinforcements.
- But already about sixty of them, elite soldiers, have entered Rwanda at Cyangugu. They spent a calm first night there, well received by the population.
- These are the first reconnaissance missions to identify refugee camps, identify people in danger, establish priorities for French intervention.
- In the coming days, other reconnaissance missions will be launched further north, from Goma to Gisenyi.
- And these troops, intelligence specialists, will have as a priority to always keep a safe distance from the RPF forces to avoid any slippage during these humanitarian missions.
- Leaving Lyon last night aboard a Russian plane, a complete medical unit, with around fifty doctors and nurses, arrived this morning in Zaire, near the border with Rwanda. The French army has already started installing it.