Fire broke out at Rubavu prison in the Western Province yesterday evening, leaving three inmates dead and 40 others injured. The cause of the fire, that brought down a significant section of the prison, located about 164km from Kigali is still unknown. Anastase Nabahire, the Spokesperson for the Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS), told this paper that the fire started at around 5pm, burning one section of the four room-block. “The fire fighting team is doing all they can to contain the fire and the situation is under control. However, it is unfortunate that three inmates are already dead while about 40 have sustained injuries,” he said. “What we are doing now is to provide medical care to the injured, as well as beddings among other basic necessities to those that lost their personal properties.” Nabahire said medics from Gisenyi Hospital and the Rubavu prison internal medical personnel arrived in time to provide the required medical attention to the injured. He said investigations are on to ascertain the cause of the fire. The Rubavu prison fire outbreak comes just a month after Muhanga Prison, along the Kigali-Huye highway, in Southern Province, was burnt down by fire which destroyed property worth millions of francs, including buildings and inmates’ belongings. The Western Region Police Commander, ACP Gilbert R. Gumira, said there should not be speculation about the cause of yesterday’s fire. “Police investigations into the previous fire outbreak in Muhanga prison showed that the fire was caused by electric fault, and now we haven’t confirmed the cause of this (Rubavu prison) incident; it could be electric circuit, it could be arson or any other cause. Relating it (fire outbreak) to anything right now would be wrong,” he said. Rubavu prison accommodates 5,000 inmates – only males. However, when the fire incident happened, there were about 4,000 inmates inside, according to Nabahire.
