New details have emerged on the shooting of President Paul Kagame former bodyguard Camir Nkurunziza in Cape Town on Thursday. According to the details, Nkurunziza’s car had been hijacked before he was shot dead.
The Sowetan reported that Rwandan high commissioner to South Africa Vincent Karega confirmed that Nkurunziza was a metered taxi driver who was hijacked on the corner of Hugo and Milton roads in Goodwood at around 5:00 pm. Karega said the hijackers put Nkurunziza in the backseat of the car and sped off before he was killed in the crossfire in the shootout with the police.
“Probably they wanted to take the car… Maybe they wanted to take him somewhere where it is dark or so and dump him. I don’t know‚” Karega said.
Karega contradicted Rwanda’s minister of state for foreign affairs in charge of the East African Community, Olivier Nduhungirehe, who had earlier stated that Nkurunziza was killed while on a hijacking mission in a tweet.
“So, Nkurunziza, a member of terrorist organizations RNC of Kayumba Nyamwasa then FLN of Nsabimana, was also a hijacker in South Africa. He was killed yesterday evening by the Goodwood Police while resisting arrest with a knife. Once a criminal, always a criminal,” Nduhungirehe said.
According to Sunday Vision Nkurunziza had expressed fears to a close friend two days before the incident. On Friday, South African Police arrested two suspects in connection with the murder. Details about the arrested suspects remained scanty. They also recovered an unlicensed firearm. The two arrested suspects said to be aged 28 and 41 were due to appear in Goodwood Magistrate’s Court.
Nkurunziza is a brother of Sgt Innocent Karisa who was kidnapped from Uganda by Ugandan police and handed over to Rwanda after being accused of recruiting for the Rwanda National Congress. Nkurunziza, a former member of the presidential guard, fled to exile in South Africa after accusing Kagame of planning to rule Rwandans by force and torture of opponents.
Kagame also accused him of planning a coup. Nkurunziza later joined the RNC but by the time of his death, he was linked to the recently arrested Rwandan dissident Callixte Nsabimana alias Sankara of the National Liberation Movement (NLM).
