The National Paralympic Committee of Rwanda has appointed Jean Baptiste Murema as its new President ©National Paralympic Committee of Rwanda

The National Paralympic Committee (NPC) of Rwanda has appointed Jean Baptiste Murema as its new President following a General Assembly at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali.

Murema, a former sitting volleyball player who competed at London 2012, will take over the position from Celestin Nzeyimana who has been in office since 2012.

He was elected unopposed with 44 of the 45 votes cast and will serve a four-year term.

Murema will look to build on Rwanda’s appearance at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, where it became the first African country to field a women's sitting volleyball team at a Games.

He has vowed to oversee the successful qualification of Rwanda's men’s and women's sitting volleyball teams for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Rwanda made history by sending the first African women’s sitting volleyball team to a Paralympics Games at Rio 2016 ©Getty Images
Rwanda made history by sending the first African women’s sitting volleyball team to a Paralympics Games at Rio 2016 ©Getty Images

"I have to say that great work has been done by the outgoing committee and we have to consolidate that great effort in progress," Murema was reported as saying by the The New Times.

"My objective is to thoroughly develop sports for disabled people but on top of it all, I together with the new committee will do whatever is possible to qualify for Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in both categories and we are going to lay strategies for it soon."

Murema will be joined by Marie-Claire Iriza Dinah as first vice-president, and William Safari as second vice-president.

Dieudonne Mutangana, meanwhile, will replace Eric Karasira as secretary general.

Rwanda's women's sitting volleyball team lost all three of their Group B games at Rio 2016 and went onto lose the seventh-place play-off against Canada 3-0.