Rwandans in the Diaspora Fear for their Lives

A Rwandan opposition figure exiled in South Africa has been shot dead in Cape Town in what his party described as an “assassination”. Seif Bamporiki, 49, who was the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) coordinator in South Africa, was killed as he delivered furniture in the township of Nyanga. While the motive for his murder is as yet unclear, an RNC spokesperson, Etienne Mutabazi, said the method mirrored past politically motivated attacks. Mutabazi was referring to past attacks on Rwandan dissidents in South Africa, including the former intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya who was strangled in his room in a luxury hotel in 2014. Bamporiki and his colleague from a pawn shop were accosted by two assailants as they waited for a client who had disembarked from their vehicle to collect money to pay for a bed he had bought. The attackers made off with the activist’s pickup truck and money, leaving his body on the ground. No arrests have been made. Other Rwandan opposition politicians have been killed or attacked in South Africa, leading to strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES