Expeditionary· Civil Aid and Humanitarian Operations
Rwanda NEO Evacuation
A Marine-led rescue at the outset of one of the worst genocides of the twentieth century.
When the Rwandan president's plane was shot down on 6 April 1994 and Hutu extremists began the mass slaughter of Tutsis and the killing of opposition figures, the violence engulfing Kigali threatened the foreign nationals trapped in the capital. Elements of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, embarked aboard amphibious shipping off East Africa, were rushed in: combat-equipped Marines flew by C-130 into Bujumbura, Burundi, and supported the evacuation of American embassy personnel, U.S. citizens, and third-country nationals, who were gathered at the embassy in Kigali and brought overland to safety. Conducted between 7 and 18 April, the operation extracted more than two hundred people and was entirely successful, accomplished without a single Marine casualty. It stood as a sign of what a sea-based force could do on short notice, even as the wider genocide ran its terrible course.
Record no. 859