WESTERN PROVINCE
 
RUSIZI—A Kamurera boy narrowly escaped death after being severely injured by an exploded grenade.

Patrick Turatsinze, 12, found the grenade on his father’s property on the afternoon of September 24, when it exploded. He spent minutes trying to open it and beat it against the wall, before throwing it across the room.

Turatsinze lost parts of his right hand and sustained heavy injuries to the head. He is currently under care at Gihundwe Hospital in Kamembe.

Turatsinze says that he picked the grenade from his parent’s banana plantation where he had gone to collect firewood and later brought it at home thinking that it was a hammer or a torch. The mother of the child, Thaciena Mukamunana said she knew nothing of the weapon.

"I don’t know where our son got that weapon but what I know is that Turatsinze is a stubborn boy who has been playing with everything he comes across,” Mukamunana said.

The victim’s father, Levoquatre Nkurunziza has been arrested on suspicion of owning the grenade as investigations continue.

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