Rwandan Defence Force

The Rwandan Defence Force (RDF, Kinyarwanda: Ingabo z'u Rwanda, French: Forces rwandaises de défense, Swahili: Nguvu ya Ulinzi ya Watu wa Rwanda) is the military of Rwanda. Prior to 1994, Rwanda's military was officially known as the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), but following the Rwandan Civil War and the Rwandan genocide, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) renamed it the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), which was the military wing of the RPF. In late 1994, the military was rebuilt and reorganized as the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF).

The RDF is organized into three service branches: Rwandan Land Force, Rwandan Air Force and Rwandan Reserve Force. After the RPF conquered the country in July 1994 in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, the RPF decided to reform solely as Rwanda's ruling political party and separate from its military wing, where the latter would serve as the country's official military.

Defence spending continues to represent an important share of the national budget, largely due to continuing security problems along Rwanda's frontiers with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, and lingering concerns about Uganda's intentions towards its former ally.

The RDF has been engaged in a low-level insurgency from Rwandan rebels based in eastern Congo, primarily the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), since the late 1990s. The RDF is regularly deployed in peacekeeping missions in Africa, as Rwanda is currently one of the largest contributors of personnel on UN missions.

While Rwanda was a Belgian colony administered as a part of Ruanda-Urundi, its security was provided by the Force Publique, the colonial army of the Belgian Congo. As the Congo was due to achieve independence in 1960 and withdraw its forces, the Belgian Special Resident decided to create an indigenous army to provide for Rwanda's security. On 19 May 1960, he ordered the recruitment of a 650-strong military force to become the Garde Territoriale. The force was later renamed the Garde Nationale. The U.S. Army's Area Handbook for Rwanda, compiled in 1968–9, describes the security forces of Rwanda in 1969 as the 2,500 strong National Guard and the National Police, about 1,200 strong.

The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) was the national army of Rwanda until July 1994, when the government collapsed in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and the war with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (Inkotanyi). The FAR was estimated at 7,000 strong, including approximately 1,200 members of the Gendarmerie. Elite troops included the Presidential Guard, estimated at between 1,000 and 1,300 troops, as well as the Paracommando and Reconnaissance units. These two units were of battalion strength by 1994, and then counted a total of 800 troops.

In response to the RPF invasion of 1990, the 5,000-man FAR rapidly expanded, with French training assistance (as many as 1,100 French troops were in Rwanda at a time), to some 30,000 by 1992.

The Arusha Accords, signed on 4 August 1993, laid out a detailed plan for the integration of the Rwandan Government and Rwandan Patriotic Front military forces. The Rwandan government was to provide 60% of the troops for the new integrated army, but would have to share command positions with the RPF down to the level of battalion. The new army was to consist of no more than 19,000 soldiers and 6,000 Gendarmerie. However radical elements within the Rwandan government were implacably opposed to implementation of the Accords and, instead, began the planning that would lay the foundations for the genocide.