The University of Rwanda (UR) on Monday confirmed that one of the five assailants who participated in the Friday attacks in Musanze District that claimed the lives of 14 innocent civilians benefited from a government scholarship.

Theoneste Habumukiza, a Business Administration graduate, who hails from Burera District, in Northern Province, said he was recruited into FDLR at a time he was pursuing a master’s degree at Uganda’s Makerere University in the capital Kampala.

Mike Karangwa, the UR spokesperson, said: "I can only confirm that he was a UR-CBE student in the programme of BBA option of Insurance. He graduated in 2016. He was a government-sponsored student from Burera District.”

The assailants later said they belong to the DR Congo-based genocidal FDLR militia.

They also said they joined the terrorist outfit through Uganda.

They are members of RUD Urunana, an FDLR faction allied with the Rwanda National Congress in the outfit called P5.

Earlier, Habumukiza told reporters that he was approached by a wealthy person who encouraged him to join the FDLR, "saying that when they capture the country they would reward me with a well-paying job and other incentives.”

Police said they coordinated with other security organs to capture the assailants in an operation that left 19 assailants killed.

The hunt for more suspects is still ongoing.

The UN last December reported that FDLR had teamed up with Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC and other terrorist groups to destabilise Rwanda.

Their larger group, P5, is active in Fizi and Uvira territories in South Kivu Province of DR Congo.

It is said to benefit from local and external support for the recruitment of its combatants, with Burundi and Uganda the major sources for its new recruits, arms, and ammunition and other supplies, such as food, medicines, boots, and uniforms. 

FDLR is largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in which over a million people died.