For Ghana it was 1994 during the Rwandan genocide, the Ghanaian contingent to the UN peace keeping mission to Rwanda demonstrated one of the the finest moments in peacekeeping history. When the world turned its back on Rwanda in 1994, Ghanian peacekeepers stood their ground disobeying the command from UN to withdraw. After the genocide began and 10 Belgian soldiers were killed, Western powers (mostly NATO countries) evacuated their citizens and pulled out their troops. The UN mission in Rwanda had come up with a plan of creating safe corridors in Schools, Stadiums and churches where people can run to to be saved.. But the UN lead by US, Britain, France and Belgium opposed the plan and ordered ordered the Force Commander Gen. Dallaire to cut his mission by 90%. Ghanian contingent refused and decided to stay behind. . They were Led by deputy force commander brig gen. Henry Kwami Anyidoho. around 800 Ghanaian troops stayed behind with Dallaire. The Ghanian contingent had virtually no resupply, minimal ammo, and where always under constant artillery fire, but they were able to execute the original plan in a minimal way by turning the Kigali Stadium and the hottel Mille Collines into guarded sanctuaries. They would run patrol through heavily armed and hostile militia checkpoints to rescue targets, and their action is estimated to have saved over 30,000 lives. Which demonstrated that the original plan to created safe corridors would have worked had countries like the US and it's NATO allies not Vetoed the move. I still remember the UN secretary general Madeleine Albright refusing to accepted that a genocide was talking place.. chosing instead to call it "acts of genocide" rather than admitting genocide As the term genocide would automatically trigger UN to intervene hence they chose a word that gave them probable deniability. (Sounds familiar?) Other African countries volunteered to send peace keepers but since they lacked the means to transport themselves to Rwanda asked for airlift but again NATO countries refused to lift a finger. This story and many like it is what made me start to see NATO and their western allies as 2 faced hypocrites it completely shaped my perception about them growing up.. anyway I digressed. Working right alongside the Ghanaian contingent was Captain Mbaye Diagne, an unarmed UN military observer from Senegal. Every day, Diagne drove into the danger alone, using nothing but charisma, and packs of cigarettes to bribe and talk Interahamwe militias out of executing families. He would hide people in hidden compartments in his jeep, shuttling hundreds to the safety of the Ghanaian held sanctuaries. Unfortunately just days before he was due to rotate home a mortar shell landed behind Diagne’s jeep at a checkpoint, killing him instantly. The world has largely forgotten the stories of this west Africans and their role in helping save people in the genocide has been written out of history. These men held the line with almost nothing in their hands while the world looked away.. Their courage deserve to be remembered. Although this event happened when I was little boy. I knew little of the effort West Africans played in protecting lives.. till I heard about the Ghanian contingent and Diagne’s story in a podcast - can't remember the particular podcast but it stuck with me. To read more about this events. Ghanian contingent commander General Henry Kwami Anyidohowrote a first hand account of this events in his book Guns over Kigali. while the UN force commander book General Dallaire's book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Wikipedia is also a good source. – at Furah, Nigeria