Rwanda: children and wife of Boniface Twagirimana make an appeal to Rwandan President Kagame.

Mr Boniface Twagilimana

Press Release

Three 3 months (121) after the enforced disappearance of Mr Boniface Twagirimana, 1st Vice President of FDU-Inkingi from Mpanga maximum security prison, his wife is appealing to President Kagame to help her find an answer to give to her 3- and 7-years old children who are asking her when their dad is coming home. His political family, FDU-Inkingi party and members, friends and relatives have made the same call to the Rwandan President.

Mr Boniface Twagirimana mysteriously disappeared from Mpanga maximum security prison on the 8th of October 2018. According to reliable sources within the prison as well as from secret security agents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, he was picked by agents of the Rwanda security services. Former inmates of Mpanga maximum security prison are quite categorical in stating that the conditions that Boniface Twagirimana was held in and the nature of the prison made it quite impossible for him to escape. He was in the prison for only 5 days and when his wife visited him three days before his disappearance, he was in high spirits hoping to be out sooner. The worst fear is that he could have been taken to the notorious Kami military prison or to the so-called safe houses scattered around Kigali city.

People familiar with the Rwandan security system think that Mr Boniface Twagirimana was picked because the regime is desperate to get a confession against other FDU-Inkingi leadership who are awaiting trial for almost one year and half without charge. Amnesty International report detailed credible accounts of “individuals being subjected to serious beatings, electric shocks and sensory deprivation to force confessions during interrogations”. Many other people suspect that he could have died under interrogation like Mrs Illuminee Iragena, who was kidnapped on the 26 March 2016.

The FDU-Inkingi is appealing to President Kagame, as a Head of State and dad also to help the wife of Boniface Twagirimana, find an answer to her children by ordering an enquiry to identify the people who kidnapped Mr Boniface Twagirimana. This enforced disappearance is not good for his image and the image of the country because no one believes the official narrative that Mr Twagirimana escaped from Mpanga Maximum security prison.

Done in Rouen on February 6, 2019

Theophile Mpozembizi

FDU-Inkingi Commissioner for Information and Communication

[email protected]; [email protected]