Maj Gen Eugene Nkubito, the joint task force commander of Rwanda security forces (RSF) in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique's northernmost Province, gave us a stick-to-the-script kind of briefing soon after we landed in Afungi, on September 26.
His PowerPoint presentation on the Rwanda security forces' accomplishments, the current security situation, his forces' mission as well as challenges, was concise and clear. But he still gave the impression of a man who didn't want to share too much or too little information.
At the end, perhaps after detecting that some journalists wanted to ask questions, he said: "This is not a press conference," and left the room.
The meeting was over.
We would meet again, about four days later, during a medical outreach programme conducted by Rwandan and Mozambican security forces' medical teams in Quionga, 47 kilometers north of Afungi, in Palma district.
Despite the sweltering midday heat, the battle-hardened warrior didn't look like a man ready to retire. The General who turned 56 on Tuesday, October 4, has a military career spanning 35 years, and counting.
The father of three - two daughters and a son - joined Uganda's then National Resistance Army (NRA), in 1987, when he was 21. Three years later, in October 1990, as a Sergeant, he joined other Rwandans in the struggle to liberate Rwanda.
Four years later, he and others eventually stopped the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Nkubito was in the battalion of 600 men and women that started the counterattack to end the Genocide from their base at the Parliamentary building (formerly the Conseil National de Développement, or CND), in April 1994.
The 600 soldiers arrived there on December 28, 1993. Their main assignment was to protect the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) politicians in Kigali.
This small number of Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) troops, who only had light weapons, was surrounded by more than 10,000 government soldiers and militias posted a few hundred metres away in all directions. Despite the perils, the RPA troops constantly got out of their base, attacked the genocidal regime's army and saved hundreds of lives.
At the time, with just 100 soldiers, Nkubito, then a Captain, commanded the Headquarter Company in charge of the security of their base, right in the middle of enemy territory. They watched over and defended their base fiercely, conducting extraordinary operations against the genocidal regime's army, Forces Armées Rwandaises, until reinforcements arrived on April 11, 1994.
We know what is required and we are prepared to do it
Without doubt, his liberation struggle experience makes him - and many other Rwandan officers like him - stand out for his present mission.
Nkubito's assignment in Palma and Mocímboa da Praia districts, his forces' area of responsibility, is, by and large, "stabilisation" after the defeat of the terrorists. With hundreds of people now returning to their villages, Nkubito is doing everything possible, in collaboration with host nation forces and local authorities, to ensure that people are safe and catered for in various other ways including providing much needed free medical care.
Aware that terrorists are still lurking in districts such as Macomia and Nangade, Nkubito is always alert. But he is not, in any way, daunted by the task at hand.
After liberating Rwanda, his generation of officers knows what it took to have a stable and peaceful country. They are prepared to give their all in Mozambique.
"I am optimistic that we will achieve the mission. The second phase and the third were not easy. The fourth one is stabilisation and it is a phase that we have ever done. We know how it is. We know what is required for us to do it, and we are prepared to do it," Nkubito said.
"If they [terrorists] dare to come back, they should find us ready for them."
Before his new assignment in Mozambique, Nkubito who holds a Post Graduate Diploma in security studies from the University of Rwanda and a Diploma in Business Management and Administration from Cambridge International University in the UK was Commander of the First Division, overseeing Rwanda's Eastern Province and Kigali. Previously, he also served as the Second Division Commander and Task Force Division Commander, at different times.
He commanded four different Brigades, as well as the 11th and seventh RDF battalions, in different times.
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The ardent APR FC and FC Barcelona fan attended numerous military courses including the Senior Command and Staff Course at the RDF Senior Command and Staff College, and various Senior UN Peace Keeping Courses in Kenya.
He also has experience in international peacekeeping operations. In 2012, he commanded a Rwandan contingent under the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). A few years later, he also served as Rwanda's senior representative in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and Sector Juba Commander.
In Cabo Delgado, one of the things that occupies his mind is - "How did they find themselves in this situation?" The root cause of the IS-linked insurgency in Cabo Delgado is on his mind.
"That is a lesson learnt and, we should fully understand why and make sure that it never happens to Rwanda. It is a lesson that should be learnt from Mozambique. There are lessons from what happened in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and what we learnt from Darfur [in Sudan]. Today we are in Mozambique. All these situations are different."
