Rugombo : two young motorcycle taxi riders kidnapped

Justin Nirema and Yves Nsanzurwimo have not been found since last Saturday. They were kidnapped while taking food to their brothers studying in the DRC, according to witnesses.
Intelligence suspected them of collaborating with armed groups.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The two young bikers come from the locality of Mparambo 2. It is in the district of Rugombo, in the province of Cibitoke (northwest Burundi). Witnesses told SOS Médias Burundi that it is Imbonerakure (members of the CNDD-FDD youth league), under the supervision of the new representative of the SNR (National Intelligence Service) in Cibitoke, who carried out their kidnapping. At the time of the kidnapping, the two motorcycle taxi riders were on the banks of the river Rusizi.

“They had bags of beans. Intelligence suspected them of supplying the rebels but in reality they were taking food to their brothers who are studying in Congo,” say witnesses to the scene of the kidnapping of these two bikers.

And added, “they were directly loaded into the vehicle of the intelligence officer who took them to an unknown destination.”

Relatives of the two young men told SOS Médias Burundi that they had looked for them in all the official dungeons in the province, in vain.

“We are concerned for their safety and ask authorities to at least inform us of their place of detention,” they indicate.

The new SNR representative in Cibitoke declined to comment. The official was posted to this northwestern province of Burundi very recently. He arrived from Muyinga in the northeast of the country where he was often suspected of killings and kidnappings. In recent years, several inhabitants from the provinces of Bubanza and Cibitoke, bordering the DRC, have been kidnapped, others killed, suspected of collaborating with Burundian armed groups established in the province of South Kivu in eastern Congo. Some people were found in prisons. Others remain untraceable.

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A motorbike rider in Cibitoke (SOS Médias Burundi)