Mbaye Diagne (1958 – 1994) was a military officer from Senegal. During the 1994 Rwandan genocide around 500,000 people were slaughtered in just 3 months.
When the killings began, Diagne was stationed in Rwanda as a UN peacekeeper. With his jeep, he picked up hundreds of people (which only had space for 5) in the killing zones and drove them to safety. On his countless trips he had to go through several hostile checkpoints, where he and his passengers could have been shot on the spot. Nevertheless, with charm and through bribes he managed to get through. Although it was against official UN orders, commanding officers did not order him to stand down and decided to “look the other way” because Diagne was saving lives. Sadly, Diagne died in 1994 due to a grenade. Today, Diagne’s heroism, courage and selfless actions have become legendary.
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Information sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbaye_Diagne
Photo Credits / Sources:
RNW Africa [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
We are not responsible for the contents of external links. Full disclaimer can be found here.