{Six Tanzanian Muslim imams have been kidnapped by suspected Rwandan rebels in Katwiguru, located in the Demoratic Republic of Congo (DRC)\u2019s eastern region, Al-Hadji Hashim Musa, head of North Kivu\u2019s Islamic community, has told Anadolu Agency.}<\/p>\n
After preaching in certain localities in North Kivu (also located in eastern DRC), the imams set out from Rutshuru to Katwiguru on August 2, Musa said.<\/p>\n
According to Musa, the group was abducted \u2013 along with their Congolese driver \u2013 by rebels associated with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).<\/p>\n
Musa said the kidnappers had contacted the offices of the Islamic Community in Goma, a city in eastern DRC, and demanded a $40,000 ransom for the imams\u2019 release.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have informed government security agencies of the abductions,\u201d Musa said.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Thomas d\u2019Aquin Mwithi, a leading civil society figure in North Kivu, condemned the reported abductions and called on the authorities to secure the imams\u2019 release.<\/p>\n
Kidnappings have become commonplace in Rutshuru. In April, FDLR militants reportedly abducted three UN workers in the region before releasing them shortly afterward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Six Tanzanian Muslim imams have been kidnapped by suspected Rwandan rebels in Katwiguru, located in the Demoratic Republic of Congo (DRC)\u2019s eastern region, Al-Hadji Hashim Musa, head of North Kivu\u2019s Islamic community, has told Anadolu Agency.} After preaching in certain localities in North Kivu (also located in eastern DRC), the imams set out from Rutshuru […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000069361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-20327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000069361,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20327.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20327.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20327.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20327.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20327.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20327.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000069361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20327"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=20327"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=20327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}