Justice Minister: Attacking Rwanda Is Committing Suicide

Anyone backing Rwandan rebels should by now be aware they are sending the attackers to commit suicide and have to stop, Justice Minister and Attorney General Johnston Busingye warned Thursday.

“As has been the case recently, nobody attacks Rwanda and goes back. Those captured are brought before courts to answer for their crimes,” said Busingye, at a press briefing at Police Headquarters in Kigali.

Since the insurgency in northwestern Rwanda ended in 1999, no rebel group has entered and attacked while inside Rwanda. The FDLR militia, for all these years, have fired crude rockets from Congo into Rwanda.

In June 2017, the front for national liberation (FLN) attacked inside Rwanda via Nyungwe forest national park in southwestern Rwanda. In subsequent attacks, several civilians were killed.

The last publicly reported attack was towards mid this year. Since then, FLN, which was coming from DRC’s South Kivu province with passage given by Burundi intelligence, has not killed any more people.

President Paul Kagame said last month in address to members of his Rwanda Patriotic Front party, but without naming FLN, that the Rwanda Defense Forces had “cleaned” the region of any insurgents.

Then three weeks ago, another attack happened in Musanze district. The attackers also entered via a forest national park, the Volcanoes.

According to security assessments and testimony of the five captured Musanze attackers, the group belonged to RUD Urunana, one of the three Rwandan militia groups in DRC.

Another group of 25 Rwandan rebels including Rtd Maj Habib Mudathiru, were captured in operations in inside Congo, and are currently being prosecuted in the military court in Rwanda.

Speaking today, Justice Minister Busingye said: “Those supporting the attackers should decide to give up now, otherwise why would you keep supporting something not delivering results. A sensible person would give up. They should not keep pushing other people into death.”