The ceremony was attended by Festus Bizimana, the Rwandan Ambassador to Senegal, Brigadier General Simon Ndour who is the Chief of Defence Staff in Senegal, as well as other top government and military personnel.

This is because the captain risked his life to make sure that he rescues Tutsis that were under the killing during the genocide. 

For his role in fighting against the Genocide in Rwanda, he received the Campaign Against Genocide Medal (Umurinzi Medal) from Rwanda in 2010. President Paul Kagame handed over the medal to his widow officially in May 2016.

The award recognized Diagne’s exceptional courage and self-sacrifice. Although he was told by his superiors not to go and rescue people directly because it was very dangerous, he continued doing so as he felt that he had a responsibility of saving those that were going through certain death.

Today, what he did is seen as an act of bravery and moral strength that defied all odds and went against a very terrible kind of evil.

Captain Diagne also got another medal from Ban Ki-moon, the ex-United Nations Secretary-General, for his humanitarian work.

Diagne, a member of the Senegalese contingent of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR), conducted many successful rescue missions that saved hundreds of people, including children, and women, from being killed during the genocide.

He died at the age of thirty-six on May 31^st, 1994 while on duty at Kigali. This happened when he was driving a UNAMIR message and then, a mortar shell exploded near his car, and he was hit by a piece of flying metal.

The Captain Mbaye Diagne Memorial was opened in Dakar on 22^nd March 2024.