Nine Rwandan citizens were on Friday night dumped at Kagitumba one-stop border post, after spending months in Ugandan detention centres.

The civilians who had gone to Uganda for different reasons were arrested in separate months, after being accused of being ‘Rwandan spies’, claims they say are "false”.

Donatien Badege, 45, from Rwimiyaga Cell, Rwimiyaga Sector, Nyagatare District, was a pastor in "Elimu Pentecote" church and travelled to Uganda on in January this year to pursue biblical studies but he didn’t finish his studies after he was arrested and then tortured.

"I was arrested on June 18 and placed in a military barracks in Mbarara, where I was accused of being a Rwandan spy but despite my pleas that I wasn’t, they beat me the whole week, until July 24, when I was transferred to Mbuya, at the Ugandan Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) headquarters, where I was illegally detained and tortured for four months," Badege said.

Donatien Badege, one of those illegally detained in Uganda, narrates his ordeal on Friday night at the Kagitumba border post. / Jean Dieu Nsabimana

He further adds that he was tortured at the different detention centres with Ugandan military officers insulting Rwandans and government officials.

Deogratias Semakaba, a mechanic who hails from Kicukiro District went to Uganda in August 2018 after a friend promised to get him a job. He says he was arrested on August 22 this year and taken to Mbuya military barracks in Kampala. A black hood was put on his face when he was being taken to the detention facility.

At Mbuya, he was questioned many times about what he was doing in Uganda, about his job and the people he worked for.

Semakaba, 54, lost his motorcycle to the military officers who arrested him and when he was released from prison, he alongside other Rwandans who had been illegally detained and tortured were driven to the border and dumped there.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com