2014 has been a big year for the Fiji Military Forces.

Reflecting on the recent elections, Land Force Commander Colonel Sitiveni Qiliho says the efforts of the RFMF have paid off.

‘’It has been a successful year for the RFMF 2014, since 2006 the RFMF had played a leading role in governance of the country and we’ve come through that in preparations for elections until the elections this year, we’ve had successful elections and we have a government and parliament in place’’.

A milestone for the military was the appointment of a new commander as Brigadier General Mosese Tikoitoga took the helm from former commander Rear Admiral Retired – Voreqe Bainimarama.

Colonel Qiliho says the military remained resolute as forty four of our troops serving in the Golan Heights were taken hostage by rebel group – the Al-Nusra Front.

‘’this year we had the unfortunate situation where the second battalion to UNDOF we had some of our troops that were taken hostages, their release without any harm is something that we also cherish and we thank the people of Fiji for coming together during that trying times when the soldiers were taken hostage for 14 days’’.

A number of troops under the RFMF Engineers Corp have been active with government projects in villages and remote communities around Fiji, this has often gone unnoticed.

Colonel Qiliho adds peacekeepers deployed to United Nations missions have been successfully executing their duties.