Kirundo: a returnee executed by soldiers

A unnamed man was killed by soldiers last Saturday afternoon in an incident that took place in the Murehe nature reserve near the Burundian-Rwandan border in the commune of Busoni in the province of Kirundo (northern Burundi). The victim, a returnee from Mahama refugee camp in Rwanda, was apprehended in the urban center of Kirundo with a gun hidden in a bag of charcoal. He was then taken to the nearby reserve where he was eventually executed. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Ferdinand Kambayingwe, about fourty years, was native of Kanyinya hill in the commune and province of Kirundo.

According to administrative sources, Kambayingwe had returned from the Mahama refugee camp last year.

The same sources specify that the victim was arrested on Saturday morning with on his bicycle a bag of coal inside which was hidden an AK-47.

Suspected by soldiers from the Mutwenzi camp (close to the provincial capital), he was arrested by the same soldiers who forced him to put the bag on the ground and show them what was inside.

“They found a rifle packed in a bag there,” a security source said.

The man confessed that there are other rifles and ammunition hidden in the Murehe nature reserve very close to the Burundi-Rwanda border, according to sources familiar with the matter.

“He was badly beaten up for accepting the impossible otherwise there was no other gun hidden somewhere,” said a police officer who asked not to be named.

“Arrived in this reserve, this man did not find the weapons and ammunition as promised under torture. He made an attempt to escape and the soldiers shot at him”, indicated a policeman.

The body was quickly buried in the commune of Busoni instead of bringing it to the commune of Kirundo to be buried by his family.

“The administration in the commune of Busoni in collaboration with that of the commune of Kirundo hastened his burial. This caused suspicions behind this sad event”, specified a hillside elected official from Busoni.

The returnee had fled to Rwanda in 2015 during the crisis sparked by another controversial tenure of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza. His family is trying to find out the truth about his death, pleading for an independent investigation.