Gen Mahamat arrived in Rwanda on Friday 18th March 2022 where he was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr. Vincent Biruta upon arrival at Kigali International Airport.
He is expected to hold talks with Kagame and visit Kigali Genocide Memorial before interacting with Chadians living in Rwanda on Saturday.
Gen Mahamat,38, took over from his father, Marshal Idriss Déby Itno who died on the battlefield fighting rebels hostile to his Government last year.
The Chadian Transitional Military Council established an interim cabinet comprised of 40 ministers and their deputies in May 2021.
Rwanda and Chad enjoy existing diplomatic cooperation. Rwanda’s interests in Chad are currently represented by Ambassador Stanislas Kamanzi with residence in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
In August last year, President Paul Kagame sent a message to Gen Mahamat, delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Biruta.
Details of the message were not disclosed but the envoy was sent to Chad after Kagame had hosted Abdelkerim Deby Itno, the Director of Cabinet and Special Envoy of the President of the Transitional Military Council of Chad on 6th May 2021.
Chad is among countries faced with insecurity due to the presence of rebel groups against established leadership which triggered the death of President Idriss Deby Itno who died last year on the battlefield after three decades in power.
The visit is held at a time when the Chadian Government continues to cooperate with partner countries to restore order.
Upon arrival at Kigali International Airport on 18th March 2022, he was received by Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr. Vincent Biruta.
Gen Mahamat will be hosted by President Paul Kagame at Urugwiro Village this and visit Kigali Genocide Memorial this afternoon.
On the second day of his visit, Saturday 19th March 2022, he is expected to meet with Chadians living in Rwanda.
Rwanda and Chad enjoy existing diplomatic cooperation. Rwanda’s interests in Chad are currently represented by Ambassador Stanislas Kamanzi with residence in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
In August last year, President Paul Kagame sent a message to Gen Mahamat, delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Biruta.
Details of the message were not disclosed but the envoy was sent to Chad after Kagame had hosted Abdelkerim Deby Itno, the Director of Cabinet and Special Envoy of the President of the Transitional Military Council of Chad on 6th May 2021.
Chad is among countries faced with insecurity due to the presence of rebel groups against established leadership which triggered the death of President Idriss Deby Itno who died last year on the battlefield after three decades in power.
The visit is held at a time when the Chadian Government continues to cooperate with partner countries to restore order.
The directive for activities producing noise pollution, prohibits loudspeakers between 10.p.m and 6.a.m.
The timeframe is of great significance to Muslims in Rwanda who usually use loud speakers to call followers to prayers five times per day.
These include the Adhan call at 4:30 a.m. reminding Muslims of prayers held 5:00 a.m. every day.
The Adhan lasts between two and five minutes.
The Minister of Local Government, Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi has said that the decision does not only concern Muslims but also other religious denominations that annoy people during night hours.
“Worshippers must continue their activities being aware of their limitations to avoid nuisance to others. I saw some people registering Christians to attend prayers in the evening, home based fellowship groups and morning prayers. These activities are not prohibited. What is prohibited is doing it in the wee hours, and play instruments that might disturb people or cause noise pollution violating their rights as they sleep,” he said.
Minister Gatabazi has said that Muslim’s call to prayer was practiced for far too long.
He revealed that some people not concerned with the Adhan expressed concerns that they are extremely annoyed over related noise pollution.
“The decision was taken because there are people who continuously file complaints that they no longer sleep because they are disturbed by repeated call to prayers. This happens in different localities. Residents raised alarm about the issue. Perhaps, they were not understood as they rose concerns but it is their rights,” he said.
Noise pollution, according to National Noise Pollution Guidelines, is determined when sound goes beyond 80 decibel (db). Decibel is the unit through which noise is measured and sound becomes “physically painful” when it goes beyond 80db.
Often neglected, noise pollution adversely affects the human being leading to irritation, loss of concentration, loss of hearing, sleeping disorder among other ill effects.
Minister Gatabazi revealed that the decision is based on the environmental law established in 2004 as amended 2018.
The law No. 48/2018 of 13/08/2018 on environment in its article 43, states that; “Without prejudice to the provisions of the law determining offences and penalties in general, any person who causes noise pollution is liable to an administrative fine of Rwf500, 000.”
Under the new penal code, noise nuisance carries a penalty of a fine not less than Rwf500, 000 and not more than Rwf1, 000,000.
In case of recidivism, the penalty is imprisonment for a term of not less than eight days and not more than one month and a fine of more than Rwf1,000,000 and not more than Rwf2,000,000 or one of the penalties.
“First of all, the law was passed but did not go into implementation. Secondly, established guidelines did not go into force. Thirdly, concerned followers came to us complaining. They inquired into why we are stopping them yet the law was discussed before it was passed,” Minister Gatabazi said.
“We finally realized that these people misunderstood the decision. It was not meant to halt prayers. No one intends to stop prayers for Muslims, Catholic Church believers and Protestants among others,” he added.
Gatabazi revealed that there are no restrictions for prayers in the daylight while the harmful call to overnight prayers is prohibited.
The decision to avoid noise pollution also concerns restaurants, bars and other businesses.
Mutabazi has been serving as board member in different companies including Equity Bank Rwanda which announced his death on 17th March 2022.
“On behalf of the Equity Group family, we send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Late Steven Mutabazi. May his soul rest in peace,” the lender has tweeted.
Mutabazi built his entrepreneurial business career in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. He studied Engineering at Monash University, founded and led two technology innovation companies for 20 years.
In between, Mutabazi held senior positions with Telstra Corporation (Australia), leading corporate initiatives to transform the company in the then newly regulated telecom market, and with Hewlett Packard Company, delivering internet and e-Commerce solutions in 12 countries of the Asia Pacific region.
Due to his passion to contribute to his county’s development, Mutabazi was invited to join the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in 2012, where over 6 years, he led the Government’s effort to establish a joint venture with KT Corporation for the rollout of Rwanda’s 4G LTE network to cover 95% of the population by 2017, and to establish the Kigali Innovation City (KIC) flagship initiative to position Rwanda as a pan-African technology and talent hub.
Mutabazi holds a Master’s degree of Engineering Science. He has over 30 years of experience in corporate governance, acquired as an Executive Board Member of the two companies he founded, and later as Chairman of Broadband Systems Corporation Ltd (6 years), KT Rwanda Networks Ltd (3 years), and the National Industrial Research and Development Agency of Rwanda (since 2015).
Steve was also a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Justified Accord is the United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM) East Africa annual joint combined exercise that involves U.S. military, partner nations and international organizations to promote interoperability between participants for AU and UN peacekeeping missions and counter-terrorism crisis response.
Throughout training, the participants focused on activities that incorporated multidimensional entities including military component, police component, civilian and NGOs with a multinational field training exercise (FTX) and command post exercise (CPX) which focused on both individual and joint readiness. The FTX was held in Isiolo County while the CPX took place in Nairobi.
In his closing remarks, Maj Gen Gregory Anderson, Chief operations USAFRICOM said that the entire package of the course, the CPX and FTX were tailored to address AU and UN complex multinational aspects of peacekeeping and counter terrorism.
It improves interoperability among participating nations and enhances inter agency collaboration in dealing with security challenges and threats, he added.
Janvier Munyentwari, 44, was arrested in the forest on Wednesday, March 16, cutting trees, according to Superintendent of Police (SP) Hamdun Twizeyimana, the Police spokesperson for the Eastern region.
“Munyentwari was found in the government protected forest and had already cut 112 trees when Police arrived,” SP Twizeyimana said.
The environmental crime was reported by the local residents, he added.
It is said that Munyentwari has been cutting trees in the gazetted forest for the past four days, for charcoal burning.
SP Twizeyimana thanked residents, who shared information leading to the arrest of the suspect.
He further warned against destroying forests, an act of environmental degradation.
The suspect was handed over to RIB at Gahara station for further legal process.
Article 44 of Law N°48/2018 of 13/08/2018 on environment prohibits the following acts in order to protect biodiversity: burning forests, national parks and reserved areas, burning swamps, grazing land, bushes, grass with the aim of agriculture or organising grazing land, killing, injuring and capturing animals of endangered species, destroying or damaging habitats, larvae, pupae or the young animals of the endangered species, causing death or burning protected plants, harvesting or destroying them, transporting or selling the remains of a whole or part of an animal and plants of endangered species, and cutting trees in forests or protected areas or in national parks.
In article 59; any person who causes death, destroys protected plants, harvests or damages them, commits an offence. Upon conviction, he/she is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than three years and not more than five years and a fine of not less than Rwf1 million and not more than Rwf3 million.
Burundi’s Presidency has via Twitter handle revealed that Cardinal Kambanda is in Burundi for a meeting of the association of episcopal conferences from Rwanda and Burundi (ACOREB).
Cardinal Kambanda was hosted along with Bishop Philippe Rukamba, the President of the Episcopal Conference in Rwanda and two Burundian colleagues. Ndayishimiye was with his wife, Angeline Ndayubaha as he hosted the clerics.
ACOREB was created on 6th June 1981. It seeks to promote the sharing of experiences along the evangelization journey.
It is currently chaired by Bishop Gervais Banshimiyubusa of Ngozi Diocese in Burundi, Bishop Philippe Rukamba from Rwanda and Father Lambert Nicitegetse.
The academy was launched in 2018 to provide room for skills development to architects, engineers, and other engineering-related professionals.
Beneficiaries of the recent training were trained on using ‘Planswift’, a global award-winning software designed for digital quantity takeoffs and estimating which is believed to speed up the work of quantity surveying at 60% compared to the manual quantification and estimating process.
The training was organized to tackle difficulties facing quantity surveyors over lacking technology to ease their daily operations.
Through existing cooperation accreditation from Planswift owned by ‘Nziza Training Academy’, the academy invited a senior software consultant at Planswift, Saady Chohan to enlighten Rwandan quantity surveyors on the technology that makes their jobs easy, quick and accurate.
Saady Chohan is an official Planswift Expert in Asia, the Middle East, and African countries. The two-day training seminar which took place in Kigali was concluded on 14 March 2022.
After completing the training, the expert headed to IPRC Kigali to train students and lecturers from the option of ‘quantity surveying’ on the technology as part of existing agreement between Nziza Training Academy and IPRC Kigali.
The fund was created in June 2020 to mitigate effects of COVID-19 with Rwf100 billion.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday 16th March 2022, Prime Minister, Dr. Edouard Ngirente said that more funds were pumped into the facility to increase the number of beneficiaries.
Dr. Ngirente revealed that the fund supported teachers, drivers, hotels and medium enterprises among others during lockdowns.
Beneficiaries of the fund launched in 2020 were given a three-year tenor.
Of these funds, Rwf42 billion was disbursed to 13 hotels across the country.
In public transport, the Government disbursed Rwf7.7 billion to 56 people to clear outstanding debts owed to banks and received additional support of Rwf11 billion.
The education sector also received Rwf13 billion funding distributed among 116 private schools including universities.
Among others, Rwf11 billion was disbursed to 156 companies from the private sector affected by COVID-19.
A total of 52,000 small and medium enterprises also benefitted from the fund with Rwf6 billion as at Friday last week.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN), Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana has explained that the Government acquired more Rwf100 billion after the initial fund was drained and plans to increase the funds by Rwf150 billion in the next three weeks.
“The fund is set to increase from Rwf100 billion to Rwf350 billion, more than three times. The move will help us along the journey to mitigate COVID-19 effects. The facility will help us maintain normal economic growth as it had been before the pandemic emerged,” he said.
Minister Ndagijimana said that the Rwf150 billion to be injected will be allocated to support new investments and the manufacturing sector.
On Wednesday 16th March 2022, the Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Operations and Commander of Land Forces of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba concluded his three-day visit to Rwanda.
Before coming to Rwanda, Lt Gen Muhoozi revealed that the visit is part of efforts to mend relations between Rwanda and Uganda that deteriorated since 2017.
His previous visit to Rwanda was on 22nd January 2022, a move that was followed by the reopening of Gatuna border.
Later on, Rwanda reopened all land borders on 7th March 2022.
Following the second visit of Lt Gen Muhoozi, the Government Spokesperson has via Twitter handle revealed that there are pending issues to be resolved.
“Despite all the positivity and progress of the 2nd visit to Kigali by Lt. Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, there’s still need to pay attention to underlying unresolved issues, raised from the start, of known hostile persons bent on destabilizing Rwanda, still operating in Uganda,” she tweeted.
“Also pending is continued hateful media propaganda produced by Uganda-based individuals including Obed Katurebe aka RPF Gakwerere, Sula Nuwamanya, Gerald Tindifa, Robert Higiro, Asiimwe Kanamugire, etc. We patiently await action by Ugandan authorities on this unfinished business,” Makolo added.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday 16th March 2022, Prime Minister, Dr. Edouard Ngirente also observed that there has been a progress towards mending ties with Uganda but insisted that restoring relations to normal is a process that cannot be finished in one day.
