Two people were killed and six others were injured after armed men suspected of belonging to a rebel group opened fire on a passenger bus in southern Rwanda, police said on Saturday.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News Channel online or through the app.
The attack took place in the Nyamagabe district near the Burundi border on Saturday afternoon, police said in a statement, adding that “armed thugs were suspected to be the remains of the FLN” or National Liberation Front.
“The attackers killed the bus driver and a passenger and injured six other passengers as well,” police said.
A Rwandan court last year sentenced “Hotel Rwanda” hero Paul Rusebagina to 25 years in prison for allegedly supporting the FLN as a government critic.
The group has been blamed for deadly attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019, in which nine people were killed.
Russabagina’s family and her supporters have dismissed the trial as a sham, with irregularities, and the verdict sparking international concern, with the United States saying last month that she was “wrongfully detained”. .
Rusesabagina, a US permanent resident and a Belgian citizen, has called Rwandan President Paul Kagame a dictator.
His family, which has campaigned globally for his release, has now warned that the 68-year-old is in danger of dying behind bars because of his ill health.
He has denied any involvement in the attacks, but was the founder of the Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), an opposition group whose FLN is seen as an armed wing.
The former hotel manager is credited with saving more than 1,200 lives during the 1994 massacre, in which 800,000 people – mostly Tutsi, but also moderate Hutus – were killed.
He used his fame to launch attacks against Kagame and is behind bars since his arrest in August 2020, when a plane he believed was bound for Burundi landed in Kigali, which His family has described it as a kidnapping.
Read more:
UK migrant flight to Rwanda frozen as European court moves
UK court says flight to take migrants to Rwanda can go ahead
Explainer: why are UK asylum seekers being deported to Rwanda?
