On Thursday April 3, last year, Claudine Dushimirimana, a resident of Murande Cell in Remera Sector, Musanze District, woke up early morning to attend to her routine domestic chores.

Among the chores was to prepare her two children aged eight and five years, for school. Little did she know that the breakfast she served them, and the kind-jolly words she got from them that morning would be last - at least for the next one year.

While the 32-year-old mother thought and worked hard for her two children, her husband was planning something sinister behind curtains, scheming to kidnap his own children and run away with them.

April 3 became the day of darkness for Dushimirimana, when she returned home from work to an empty house. Neither her children nor her husband were anywhere to be seen.

"I found the doors open, I called out my children but there was no response. My husband was nowhere and I couldn’t even find some family legal documents like land titles,” says Dushimirimana.

"I sensed something sinister, but I kept comforting myself that maybe they were nearby and would return home at least in an hour,” she said.

At about midnight, the distraught mother decided to report the matter to Police and local authorities.

"By that time, I was sure of two things; my husband had left me and decided to take our children along with him and I knew he had gone to Uganda where his mother lives.”

At the time, the couple was embroiled in domestic disputes with the wife accusing the husband of being lazy and spending the little earnings she made from tailoring and farming on alcohol.

"He was a failure and a disappointment to the family,” she claimed.

Police investigations at the time indicated that although Dushimirimana seemed sure that her husband had crossed to Uganda with her children, he must have used an illegal border crossing since there were no records of him at any border post.

Although Police assured her that investigations were being conducted, Dushimirimana was not settled. She contacted her friends in Uganda to help find out the whereabouts of  her husband.

"I was hopeless and heartbroken. I couldn’t eat or sleep,” she lamented.

A phone call of hope, however, came in on the evening of Sunday June 1, 2014, when one of her friends in Uganda informed her that he had spotted her children and the husband in Uganda’s central district of Mubende, where they were apparently staying with her mother-in-law.

Involving police

Although Interpol Kigali was following up the case in partnership with Interpol Kampala, a mother’s love forced Dushimirimana to put matters in her own hands.

She paid a surprise visit to her children on June 20, shocking the husband, who most probably wondered how she had found out  about his whereabouts.

"I couldn’t believe it when I saw my daughter in a distance. She kept staring at me, most probably; she also couldn’t believe that it was her mother, at least for the next five minutes,” she said.

"I saw tears rolling down my children’s cheeks, wearing rags and looking so dirty. Probably they had not bathed for the last two days or so and were living a miserable life,” she added.

She pleaded with the husband to let her return with  the children but he refused. Instead, he tainted her name among local residents, trying to convince them that she wanted to steal the children from him.

"His neighbours came and told me that children belong to the father and threatened to kill me if I dared take them and my hope was now left in the hands of Police.”

"Interpol Kigali assured me that they would do everything possible to bring back my children and that they would keep me informed on any new development.

In mid-February (2015), Interpol Kigali provided her with a letter to take to Interpol Kampala, who would help rescue her children.

"I went there because I was the only one who knew where my children were living. When I reached Kampala, Police gave me another letter to take to Police in Mubende who arrested my husband. At the time, the children were not at home but he was interrogated until he took them to where they were,” she said.

"I thank the Rwanda and Uganda police for rescuing  my children,” said the emotional mother as she sat beside her children.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Tony Kuramba, Commissioner for Interpol at Rwanda National Police, warned parents against taking children without the consent of their spouse, which is a crime and punishable under article 224 of the Rwandan penal code.

It partly states that if a child is abducted by one of his or her parents, the offender is liable to a term of imprisonment of two to five years and a fine ranging from Rwf100, 000 to Rwf1 million.

He noted that timely reporting of such incidents is vital for quick police action and timely results.

"We are in close contact with Interpol Kampala and we are processing all necessary documents to have him extradited back to Rwanda to face trial over child abduction,” said ACP Kuramba.

"But there are two cases involved; he went to Uganda after committing a crime (child abduction) in Rwanda but in going there, he committed another offence of entering Uganda illegally, so he is also facing charges of illegal entry there. But these are issues we are currently discussing with our counterparts,” he added.

"We have unique working relations with Uganda Police especially in tackling cross-border crimes and as RNP; we are really happy and grateful for this vital cooperation. At RNP, we value cross-border cooperation as an inevitable tool in the modern policing arena.”

The two Police forces have in the recent past exchanged suspected criminals arrested on both sides and recovered stolen things.