Giharo : the district police commissioner killed with machetes

Police Major Japhet Mukeshimana was killed on the evening of Tuesday, January 2, 2024. The tragedy took place in Nkanka village in Giharo district in Rutana province in southeast Burundi. Local police say at least eight suspects have already been arrested. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

According to police sources, he was killed with a machete while he was in a field of palm trees that he had purchased very recently.

“He left his transmission agent on the road near his crop fields. Some time later, a woman came to alert his transmission agent that Japhet Mukeshima was nowhere to be found. When the agent went to look for him, he found him already murdered with several machete blows to the head”, says a source within the police on condition of anonymity.

Some opinion suspects that Japhet Mukeshimana fell into an ambush by members of the CNDD-FDD, the ruling party.

Sources on site indicate that he was killed after he had just arrested 3 of the 4 Imbonerakure (members of the CNDD-FDD youth league), suspected of having murdered a young man named Josué Iraganje, a few days ago, Imbonerakure that CNDD-FDD leaders in this locality had sworn to protect.

According to administration sources, the provincial secretary of the CNDD-FDD, Sylvain Nzikoruriho, even held meetings last week to intimidate the police, forbidding them from continuing to accuse Bernard Niyibizi of being among the perpetrators of this crime. The latter is responsible for the youth of the ruling party in the new district of Musongati.

Japhet Mukeshimana had also summoned Sylvain Nzikoruriho last July in a misunderstanding that occurred following investigations carried out by a judicial police officer into the assassination of another resident by Imbonerakure, some of whom are part of Sylvain Nzikoruriho’s guard.

Mr. Nzikoruriho opposed investigations undertaken by the Giharo district police station.

At least eight people, including two women, have already been arrested since Tuesday, as part of a police investigation.

Another suspect was reportedly arrested this Wednesday morning.

Several police and soldiers have been deployed in Nkanka village since the morning of Wednesday.

The administration and police authorities have not yet reacted.

The victim was a former rebel of the FNL (National Liberation Forces), which was at the time led by the leader of the CNL party Agathon Rwasa, an opposition political group whose activities were suspended by the minister in charge of internal affairs since last June.