Mass arrests as Muhanga rounds up town vagrants

SOUTHERN PROVINCE MUHANGA—Six hundred residents were arrested and screened by police authorities last week as increasing numbers of idle and disorderly residents have raised major concerns in Muhanga. Crime rates and drug use is thought to have skyrocketed in Nyamabuye sector especially around the main taxi park, where the mass arrests took place on September 22. RDF commander Major Evariste Ruganganzi, said that the operation was aimed at combating idle and disorderly behaviour of residents, most of them youths without jobs and proper identification. “The majority of the arrested and screened idlers came from the former Cyangugu, Kibuye, Butare and Gikongoro provinces and 370 of them were put on trucks and sent back home,” Ruganganzi said. “The operation was sparked off by many jobless youths and some alleged drug addicts and thieves, who have caused more commotion and insecurity in the past months,” he said. The operation, mounted by national police officers and local defence forces, took about three hours as security officers screened mostly shabby, stranded, redundant town dwellers in Nyamabuye sector. Executive secretary David Dushimimana complimented security officials and stated that increasing numbers of idlers was a major concern and the district, in conjunction with security officials, had laid out strategies to reduce the trend. Some residents have described the phenomenon as one due to the rapid development of the district and immigration attractions of youths in the Southern Province. “There has not been a mechanism for curbing the increasing number of street kids pulled by the attractive site and visions of major cities,” university student Jean Pierre Ndagijimama said. The steady growth of Muhanga town has pulled big populations into the town centre, most of them youth. Ends