Three Rwandans held in DR Congo, three others released after making hefty payment

WESTERN PROVINCE RUBAVU — Three Rwandan students from the Rubavu District were recently arrested and detained in the DR Congo’s town of Goma and their parents had to pay a ransom of US$1000 to secure their release, an official said. Eric Kabera, the Bugeshi Sector coordinator, said the whereabouts of other three residents is still unknown as they are suspected to be imprisoned in DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa. He identified them as Ramadan Ugirumurengera, Jean Marie Twishime and Theofile Dusengimana. Kabera was on Wednesday addressing law makers on the Parliamentary Committee on Security, who had visited the area to assess the security situation in the Sectors bordering DR Congo. Led by the committee president, Alfred Gasana the legislators held discussions with residents before holding a meeting with district leaders- in which they discussed ways of ensuring security in the district. Addressing residents of Kabumba cell in Bugeshi Sector, Gasana urged them to be vigilant with regard to their own security. Regarding those being held, the legislators promised their families that their relatives would soon be freed since both governments were steadily mending ties. ‘The aim of our visit was to assess the security situation and to find out the causes of the rising cases of domestic violence in the area, our visit is focused on Sectors neighbouring DR Congo that have experienced various security threats in the past due in part to the presence of the negative forces operating in the DR Congo’, Gasana explained. However, he observed that the security situation has gone back to normal and this should serve as a positive gesture in resuming inter-border activities. ‘You can tell this by the nature of questions residents have asked, we gave them time to express issues and to air specifically questions related to security but these were very few’, the MP commented. ‘There were security threats in the past month in this sector where security personnel have arrested Interahamwe militias being sheltered by some of the residents, and this is the sector that was recently shelled by bombs from DR Congo territories by unidentified people’, he added. He thanked residents for their current contribution towards enhancing security, calling upon them to build impenetrable and concrete security measures to ensure safety. ‘Any suspected infiltrators should be reported to security personnel immediately. The army and Police are always on standby to deal with any one intending to destabilise security’, said Gasana. Ends