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Former Kagame bodyguard killed in South Africa
Camille Nkurunziza, a former bodyguard to Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame was assassinated in Cape Town, South Africa on Thursday afternoon. NET PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Nkuruziza's death comes just days after Maj Sankara, a rebel leader accused of orchestrating deadly attacks in Rwanda's border regions pleaded guilty to terrorism and other charges, and reportedly admitted to working with foreign governments against Kigali.
Former bodyguard to Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame was killed in Cape Town, South Africa on Thursday afternoon.
Camille Nkuruziza turned a critic of his former boss President Kagame and fled into exile in South Africa where he and the arrested Maj Callixite Nsabimaana aka Sankara met.
According to a close relative, Nkurunziza, a brother to Sgt Innocent Karisa who was also kidnapped from Uganda in 2013 and is said to be incarcerated in Kigali.
After the kidnap of Sgt Karisa in August 2013, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued a strong protest to the government of Uganda over what it called the rise in abductions and the attempted assassination of Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers in the country.
Rwandan State Minister for East African Community affairs Olivier Nduhungirehe said he was killed by the Goodwood Police after he resisted arrest over his involvement in car hijacking.
"So, Camille Nkurunziza, a member of terrorist organizations RNC of Kayumba Nyamwasa then FLN of Callixte Nsabimana, was also a hijacker in South Africa. He was killed yesterday evening by the Goodwood Police while resisting arrest with a knife. Once a criminal, always a criminal," he tweeted on Friday.
Nkuruziza's death comes just days after Maj Sankara, a rebel leader accused of orchestrating deadly attacks in Rwanda's border regions pleaded guilty to terrorism and other charges, and reportedly admitted to working with foreign governments against Kigali.
Maj Sankara was arrested last month for his involvement with National Liberation Front (FLN), an insurgent movement blamed for attacks inside Rwanda from a forested area near Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He reportedly pleaded guilty to 16 charges including terrorism and murder, and offered an unconditional apology for his crimes.
In December last year, Maj Sankara claimed responsibility for setting fire to passenger buses in Nyungwe Forest -- a region popular among tourists coming to see endangered mountain gorillas -- which led to the death of two people and many injuries.
Those attacks prompted many Western governments including France, Germany, Canada, and Australia to advise their nationals against travel to the area.
A number of rebel groups opposed to Kagame -- who has ruled for decades and pursued his political opponents at home and abroad -- have proliferated just over Rwanda's borders in remote forest regions of DR Congo and Burundi.
The FLN is the armed wing of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change, a political opposition group founded by Paul Rusesabagina, the hotelier whose actions during the 1994 genocide were depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster Hotel Rwanda.
Rusesabagina, in a video posted to YouTube in December, said the FLN was seeking to "liberate" Rwanda from an oppressive government in Kigali.
"Many Rwandans are taken by security forces and are never seen again," said Rusesabagina, who has lived in Belgium since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
The FLN is also affiliated with the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR), another rebel group based in DR Congo, which occasionally carries out cross-border attacks against Rwandan forces.
