In July 1994 the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) was at the forefront of the rescue effort during one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the 20th century. They were the right people at the right time, and the C-130H Hercules was the aircraft that got the job done.
In April 1994, the Rwandan Government, dominated by the majority Hutu tribe began a brutal genocidal campaign against its opponents, in particular, the smaller Tutsi tribe, killing around half a million people. The Tutsis fought back in the form of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The RPF defeated the Government forces and around two million Hutus fled over the border to neighbouring countries to avoid retribution by the RPF.
The humanitarian crisis deepened as thousands started to suffer from hunger and disease.
The United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR was tasked with providing relief. The New Zealand Government committed to providing money and an RNZAF C-130H Hercules of No. 40 Squadron to assist in transporting aid to the struggling refugees through the auspices of the UNHCR.
The 36-strong detachment, led by Wing Commander Graham Lintott, flew out of New Zealand on 25 July in Hercules NZ7002 captained by Squadron Leader Chris Mehlhopt. The Hercules arrived in Nairobi three days later before proceeding to Entebbe airport in Uganda to begin operations on the newly named Operation Reforge.
The RNZAF team consisted of two full aircrews, loadmasters, maintenance personnel, security staff, a medic, communications operator and administration team.
The RNZAF’s tented camp was set up in the shelter of a wrecked airliner, destroyed in the famous hijacking at Entebbe in 1976. Work began almost immediately, on 4 August with flights being to Goma in Zaire (now in the Democratic Republic of Congo), where many of the refugees were concentrated. There was little order at Goma with locals using the runway as a road and children playing close by.
With almost 2000 people dying each day in the camps, time was of the essence and the crews and ground staff worked long hours made frequent flights into Goma and other airfields.
Flights into Bukavu proved easier and were as vital, given nearly 400,000 people were sheltering round the town. The RNZAF aid to Bukavu was especially timely, as Wing Commander Lintott reported: “Our flight was the first food they’d had delivered in a week, so they were pretty desperate and pleased to see us.”
To increase the speed of delivery, pallets were delivered in a combat off-loading manner, by gently pushing them off the loading ramp onto the ground as the aircraft moved along the ground.
All of this was done many thousands of kilometres from home. The types of cargo carried included beans, corn soya/mash, cooking oil, biscuits and six British Land Rovers with a communications team.
On 20 September 1994, nearly two months after deployment, members of the team returned home to RNZAF Base Whenuapai and their families. Remarkably, the C-130 had delivered 3.5 million pounds of freight for refugee relief in just two months, as well as carrying over 250 passengers.
This was the highest total of any participant in the relief operation and amounted to a pound of freight for each member of the New Zealand population at that time. NZ7002 had also flown 10 percent of the allotted hours for the C-130 annually, in other words, five times as many as it would have done in the same period normally.
The legacy of Operation Reforge was the sheer number of lives saved. As Group Captain Bruce Ferguson, the Base Commander at Whenuapai put it: “We were the right people there at the right time”.
Were you part of the Operation Reforge team in 1994? Do you have any memories or items you collected? If so, the Museum Research Team would love to hear from you. Please contact us at research@airforcemuseum.co.nz
