GATSIBO - Police in Rugarama sector, Gatsibo district, are holding a man who allegedly hacked his wife last Friday using a machete.

Sources at Rugarama Police Post, said Elias Rwibasira assaulted and injured Angelique Nyirambarushimana, his wife, on the night of August 20.

"We got a call from area residents that the accused hacked his wife with a machete. We rushed to the scene and started hunting for him,” Police said, adding that the suspect was later caught and detained at Rugarama Police Post.

According to area residents, Nyirambarushimana, a mother of a three-month child, was rushed to Kiziguro Hospital where she is under medical care.

"It was fortunate that she survived. He cut her on the neck but she was rushed to the hospital right after the incident,” one of the residents said.

Police say the accused must have been motivated by domestic feuds within his family. Fransine Nyirasafari a village leader said that Rwibasira reportedly took one of their children to his parents home without his wife’s consent which sparked a quarrel that later degenerated into the assault. Emmanuel Musonera, the Executive Secretary of Kanyangese cell, blamed cases of domestic violence on lack of gender equity within the area and said authorities would step up sensitisation campaigns to check such incidents.

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