The executive secretary of Murundi Sector, Benon Gashayija has told IGIHE that the child was washed away trying to pick a shoe that was lost in a waterway.
“After yesterday’s heavy rain stopped, a child returning home from school was washed away trying to retrieve his shoe that fell in a waterway as he crossed at a bridge,” he said.
Gashayija disclosed that his colleague returned to school and informed teachers and members of the administration. They rushed to the scene and found the child dead in few meters away from the bridge.
Gashayija urged parents to prevent children from playing around water bodies and the school administrations to develop proactive measures and accompany children during the rainy season.
Rwanda accommodates nearly 80,000 Congolese refugees who fled insecurity more than 20 years ago but their government has remained silent on their problems.
When M23 rebel group resumed fighting with Congolese Army (FARDC) in 2021, DRC started accusing Rwanda of being behind insecurity in eastern part of the country and put it forward as the major concern instead of addressing issues that pushed its citizens to flee to Rwanda.
As he delivered remarks after presiding over the swearing-in of the new Senate President on Monday this week, President Paul Kagame said that Rwanda has been blamed for DRC’s problems but insisted that it is time to show how it is not Rwanda’s business.
“We are going to ensure that everybody realizes that it is not Rwanda’s problem. And starting with saying, those who think this is Rwanda’s problem and not Congo’s, first remove these Congolese from here. Those who coming in every day just on the actions of the government and institutions, you will tell me, ‘the government is not functioning properly, this or that but this is still none of my business,” said Kagame.
Following his speech, some media houses misinterpreted the message and reported that ‘Rwanda won’t accept Congolese refugees any longer’ while others ran stories indicating that ‘Rwanda may expel Congolese refugees’.
This comes at a time when violence against some ethic groups is ongoing in DRC where there is fear of possible Genocide against Kinyarwanda-speaking communities.
Meanwhile, Congolese refugees in Rwanda have been staging protests demanding their government to respond to their concerns.
During an interview with BBC, the Deputy Spokesperson of the Government of Rwanda, Alain Mukuralinda underscored that Rwanda will continue to receive all refugees crossing fleeing to the country.
“Rwanda respects international norms and abides by laws protecting refugees. Besides, it is part of the country’s culture to welcome all people coming to us as mentioned before,” he noted.
“We will continue to accept refugees and keep pushing the international community and DRC Congo government […] It is surprising that we have never had Congolese government taking into consideration problems of its citizens hosted here over the past 20 years yet Burundi sent officials in the past few days to visit different camps and mobilize Burundian refugees to return home,” added Mukuralinda.
Mukuralinda explained that Congo did not show willingness to do so but is only concerned with Rwanda and M23.
“When the problem is not addressed from its roots, it will take five or ten more years,” he said.
“To make things clear, Rwanda will neither reject refugees nor evict them. They will only return when they feel their security is guaranteed,” added Mukuralinda.
As at May 2022, Rwanda registered 127,369 refugees including 76,968 from Congo equivalent to 60.43% and 49.859 Burundians equivalent to 39.15%.
The beneficiaries are from Umunini Village, Ruhimbi Cell in Gishari Sector. Also donated to the same families are cattle spray pumps and tick control medicines.
Jean Bosco Bazatsinda, a father of four and one of the beneficiaries said that the cow will support his family and other community families, who will benefit from its offsprings.
“I thank our president, Paul Kagame, who brought Girinka (one-cow per poor family). Lives of many Rwandans have been changed because of Girinka. I will look after it well so that my family and the community reaps from it as well” said Bazatsinda.
“This cow will be provide manure to increase our agriculture production, and milk for our children. Cows in Rwandan culture, is a blessing, partnership and togetherness,” he added.
The mayor of Rwamagana District, Radjab Mbonyumuvunyi observed that the RNP community development projects define a people-centred policing.
“Police ensures the safety and security of Rwandans and their property, and goes extra miles to improve the livelihoods of the people; that’s a feat that should be rewarded with strong collaboration to fight and prevent crimes to ensure sustainable security,” mayor Mbonyumuvunyi told hundreds of residents of Gishari.
The PTS Commandant, Commissioner of Police (CP) Robert Niyonshuti thanked the residents for their community policing spirit in fighting and preventing crimes.
“Police cannot be everywhere, but you cover those gaps through community night patrols, neighborhood watch and real time information sharing,” CP Niyonshuti said.
He asked those who received heifer to graze them well to support their families and to benefit others.
Girinka programme initiated in 2006 by President Paul Kagame, is a home-grown initiative existing within the national social protection initiatives to reduce poverty, and improve livelihoods through increased milk consumption and income generation; improving agricultural productivity through the use of manure as fertilizer and promoting unity and reconciliation among Rwandans.
A poor family receives a heifer raises it and when she gives birth, the first female calf is given to another poor family and the process continues.
Recently, the PTS also paid medical insurance premiums for 1000 Gishari residents.
During the month dedicated to community development activities known as ‘Police Month’, in December last year, the RNP connected 278 households of Gishari Sector with solar energy, constructed two houses for two vulnerable families and an Early Child Development Centre (ECD).
The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), the country’s air transport regulator, said flight Number TK606 hovered in the Ugandan airspace for more than an hour.
“As a precautionary measure, the flight hovered in the Ugandan airspace before landing safely at Entebbe at 08:52 a.m. [local time],” the aviation body said in a brief statement.
“The aircraft is being checked for airworthiness before resuming the flight,” UCAA added.
He made the statement on Monday after presiding over the swearing-in of the new Senate President, Dr. François Xavier Kalinda.
The Head of State said that the country continues to be affected by the actions of DRC which should address internal problems without dragging Rwanda into its mess.
The problems are mainly related to accusations that Rwanda supports M23 rebel group which is considered as the cause of insecurity in eastern Congo, despite the presence of more than 130 armed groups.
Meanwhile, the problems have existed for many years given that Rwanda accommodates over 80,000 Congolese refugees that arrived more than 20 years ago fleeing insecurity.
In the past few weeks, it was reported that DRC brought European mercenaries believed to be from Russia to help the country deal with security crisis.
President Kagame has said that Rwanda should not be blamed for those problems, a stand which it has always maintained.
He also assured that the country stands ready to deal with those mercenaries where necessary.
“When you hear a situation is relying on mercenaries, you know that situation is a mess. If it comes to us dealing with the mercenaries, we are overstocked to deal with mercenaries. Mercenaries are the most useless people you can rely on,” he said.
“Those countries relying on mercenaries, you just know they are in trouble. They have original problems before they brought mercenaries and when they bring mercenaries, the problems are multiplied by a big factor. It gets worse, not better,” added Kagame.
“So, I am saying this with a sense of frustration. It’s like the world has gone crazy. Nobody is listening to the other. Facts no longer apply to anything. Since when Congolese, well, of Rwandese origin become Rwanda’s problem?” he wondered.
Kagame stated that the history of the presence of Kinyarwanda-speaking citizens in DRC should be considered first before sounding alarms that they must return to Rwanda.
“When you say they go back, first of all ask yourself who brought them there. Ask those who took them to Congo. How they went there I don’t know. Those who took them there or who created those conditions should be the ones to answer not me. You are not going to force that problem on me, zero. It can’t happen,” he underscored.
Kagame said that DRC’s intentions to expel a group of citizens without talking about the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) because it wants them to stay, is the heart of the matter.
FDLR is a terrorist group formed by individuals responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
The President highlighted that the aforementioned actions align with some people’s plans to overthrow Rwanda’s leadership and expressed optimism that they will fail.
Kagame made the disclosure on Monday 9th January 2022 as he received oath of the new Senate President, Dr. François Xavier Kalinda.
In his speech, Kagame talked about different issues including tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Deteriorated relations between both countries arises from reciprocal accusations where DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting M23 rebel group in a fighting with Congolese Army (FARDC) while the latter refutes the allegations and blames Congo for working with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
FDLR is a terrorist group formed by individuals responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi with intentions to continue propagating ethnic divisionism and destabilize Rwanda.
Apart from the alleged support, DRC says that some of M23 fighters are Rwandans who must return home.
President Kagame has said that those Congolese called Rwandans have stayed in Congo for so many years that they became nations due to reasons linked to history.
He said that Rwanda can’t stand and watch continuous blames over the problem of hosted Congolese refugees who fled violence in their country.
“I want to talk about the usual problem we have in our neighbourhood which keeps bringing up Rwanda’s name in all sorts of ways […] I want to start with a problem we have had for long time. We have had refugees from different places for different reasons. There is one type of refugee that I think we are not going to accept,” he said.
“ We cannot keep being host to refugees which later on we are held accountable in some way or even abused about, refugees as a result of ethnic cleansing based in another country and we must be the dumping ground of those people deprived of their rights,” added Kagame.
Today, Rwanda accommodated over 75,000 Congolese refugees in different camps across the country. The majority of them have spent more than 25 years in the host country.
Kagame went on to explain that the problem of Congolese refugees in Rwanda was addressed to Congolese President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi shortly after taking power.
“In fact, when the current President of DRC, when we were still talking, I raised this matter with him when he had just come to the office. And I told him a long story about all along what we even contemplated doing. We tried many things,” he noted.
“I told that we even thought of saying, should we absorb these people and make them our citizens and put the matter to rest just as a way of solving the problem. I also told him the difficulty with that,” highlighted Kagame.
The Head of State further disclosed that the plan to grant citizenship to Congolese refugees failed as they had different views. Firstly, he said that some refugees themselves did not want the citizenship because they wanted to go back home in DRC.
Secondly, Kagame stated that others were not interested in having Rwandan citizenship but wished to stay in Europe, US and Canada.
“I have no quarrel with that at all. When we were proposing to give them citizenship, we also told them that, if they accepted it, they can’t be the same people who would again go and cause trouble in the DRC. If they did that, we would be rightly blamed that our citizens are springing from that and now causing trouble in their country of origin,” he said.
Kagame said that he raised the issue to his counterpart of DRC AND promised support to have it resolved.
“At the beginning, he looked he was convinced and was may be going to do something about it. But now, you see where we are,” he stated.
{{Remove Congolese refugees from here to wherever you want }}
President Kagame said that Congolese leaders who continue to say that M23 combatants are wrong.
“We even tried to explain on regular basis how those people fighting there did not actually come from here. Little did I know that those who say it are actually saying these are Tutsis from Rwanda as of origin even if it is hundred years ago. So, they must go back to Rwanda,” he noted.
“At least, that’s what the authorities in Congo are actually implying. I don’t know whether those who support the idea from outside are aware of this and therefore could be doing it deliberately also or doing it knowingly. But it is a gross abuse of people’s rights and actually abuse against us as a country,” added Kagame.
The President went on to say that Rwanda won’t keep carrying that burden and held responsible for problems in DRC.
He said that one of Rwanda’s reactions to prove how it has nothing to do with Congolese problems is to handover accommodated Congolese refugees for which the country has been blamed and abused for.
“We are going to ensure that everybody realizes that it is not Rwanda’s problem. And starting with saying, those who think this is Rwanda’s problem and not Congo’s, first remove these Congolese from here. Those who coming in every day just on the actions of the government and institutions, you will tell me, ‘the government is not functioning properly, this or that but this is still none of my business,” said Kagame.
“If it is my business, it yours also meaning the international community. These are the ones I am addressing. It is as much your problem as it is mine. But I am refusing that Rwanda should carry this burden and be insulted, abuse every day about it. So, either carry them from here to wherever you want or they go back to Congo and you protect them there,” he added.
Kagame makes the disclosure at a time when Congolese refugees accommodated in Rwanda have been staging protests to denounce violence against their relatives and demanding the international community to take action, return them to Congo and defend their rights as is the case for other nationals.
The accident happened as a Coaster Registration number RAE281S took learners to Path to Success school arrived at a road junction in Rebero.
The deceased identified as Kenny Mugabo was a Primary 5 pupil at Path to Success located in Kicukiro District of Kigali City.
The Police Spokesperson for Traffic and Road Safety Department, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) René Irere has told IGIHE that the deceased was critically ill.
“The child has passed away. He is the one who was undergoing blood transfusion at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali [CHUK],” he said.
SSP Irere has revealed that other children have been discharged.
As learners testified, the bus started oversteering when they arrived at a steep slope in Rebero, moved to a nearby woodlot and hit trees as the driver tried to make a turn to the school.
In a message shared via Twitter, President Paul Kagame said that he learnt about the accident, consoled the children’s families and wished them quick recovery.
