At Least 2 killed, 6 Injured in Rebel Attack in Rwanda

Two people were killed and six others injured when armed men suspected of belonging to a rebel group shot at a passenger bus in southern Rwanda, police announced on Saturday.

The attack occurred on Saturday afternoon in Nyamagabe district near the Burundi border, police said in a statement, adding that the “armed thugs (were) suspected to be remnants of FLN” or National Liberation Front.

“The assailants killed the bus driver, and one passenger, and also injured six other passengers,” the police noted.

A Rwandan court has recently sentenced Paul Rusesabagina, the “Hotel Rwanda” hero turned outspoken government critic, to 25 years in prison on terrorism charges for allegedly backing the FLN.

The group is blamed for a spate of deadly attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019 which killed nine people.

Last May, DR Congo suspended RwandAir flights to the nation, accusing Rwanda’s government of backing the M23 rebel group, which has resumed its onslaught near their shared border.

Rwanda’s ambassador was called by the Kinshasa government to voice Rwanda’s dissatisfaction of its neighbor’s “recipist attitude.”

The decision was made after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi attended an unprecedented national security meeting.

RwandAir, Rwanda’s flag carrier, announced in a statement that all flights to Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, and Goma will be cancelled “with immediate effect.”

Kinshasa stated that it was reacting to a new round of violence by M23 in the country’s east, which erupted last month after almost a decade of relative calm.