The Rwandan government is sending officials across the country to enforce its ban on skin lightening and bleaching products.

The East African country is leading a campaign against skin bleaching and substandard cosmetics, particularly products that include hydroquinone, a spokesman from the Rwanda Standards Board told CNN.

"It is been implemented by the Ministry of Health and the Rwanda Food and Drug Authority and the Rwanda Standards Board," said Simeon Kwizera, the public relations and communications officer for the board.

"Operations are being conducted by technical people," he said. "The police is there to oversee only and make sure that all operations are being conducted in a safe way."

President Paul Kagame sparked discussions on the need to ban the sale of skin "whiteners" on social media in November.

In response to a post from a woman calling for the government to crack down on skin bleaching, Kagame said on Twitter that bleaching creams are unhealthy, and he called on the country's ministry of health and police to rein "this in very quickly."

Government officials and police are now patrolling markets in the capital, Kigali, and in provinces across the central African nation, seizing skin-lightening and bleaching products from vendors.

Last month, the country's Standards Board warned the public about the alternative names for hydroquinone, one of the prohibited ingredients in ordinary commercial cosmetics.

"All the ingredients that can help in body bleaching, skin bleaching, are banned," a government spokesperson told CNN.

Source: CNN