Cibitoke : Mabayi zone chief accused of collaboration with arrested Rwandan rebels

The Mabayi zone chief was arrested last Friday by agents of the National Intelligence Service (SNR). He is accused of collaborating and supplying Rwandan FLN rebels based in the Kibira natural reserve for a decade. Residents welcome this arrest and demand a severe sanction. The district administrator indicates that the administrative officer was arrested for investigations. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

This administrative officer named Mosaire Bazirutwabo alias Mazahari has been under arrest since Friday.

According to information collected on site, the intelligence service which arrested him accuses him of collaborating with the Rwandan FLN rebels based for more than a decade in the Kibira natural reserve.

The same information indicates that “Mosaire Bazirutwabo alias Mazahari provided food and other household products to the Rwandan rebels in exchange for gold exploited anarchically by these fighters in this immense natural forest near Mabayi”.

A highly placed source further specifies that this administrative officer maintained a group composed mainly of Imbonerakure (members of the youth league of the CNDD-FDD party) who exploit several gold deposits on his behalf in Kibira with the support of these Rwandan rebels.

“However, we advised him to leave but he did not give up collaborating with these Rwandan rebels,” reveals an Imbonerakure, contacted on site.

In Mabayi, as we have seen, some residents are delighted with the arrest of this administrative officer who, in their eyes, through his actions, could further inflame the difficult diplomatic relations between Burundi and Rwanda.

For his part, the Mabayi administrator invites “everyone to give time to investigations which will be able to shed light on the real motives behind the arrest of my close colleague”.