RWAMAGANA- Shock engulfed residents of Byange village in Mwurile sector, Rwamagana district, after a woman hacked her four children and husband to death yesterday.

Marie Nyiramungu, a mother of 5, killed her husband and the children as they slept, police said.

According to an eye witness, Nyiramungu a Burundian national used a sharp machete to cut the heads and necks of her victims.

Two children survived the killings; one was not in the house while the other managed to run away in time. One of the surviving children was her step child.

Jean de Dieu Niyonzima, 12, the biological child who survived the dawn house horror, told The New Times that his mother had shown unkindness a few days before the incident.

He said that she refused to respond to greetings from her children, and never shared a room with the husband.

"We were woken up by cries from children at around 5.30am, when I peeped through the door, I saw mother cutting father with a machete…my brother and I, run outside the house naked. When my brother went back in the house to pick clothes, mother killed him immediately.” Niyonzima said.

"I kept a distance and saw her follow my sister to the toilet then kill her. That is when I ran for my life, she followed me wielding a machete, but I was faster. I shouted and she then changed the direction and disappeared,”

Fortunate Mukankusi, the family’s neighbor, said that she was sweeping the compound early in the morning, when she saw a child running and calling for people to rescue their father, Charles Nzabarinda.  

"On arrival we were shocked by the gruesome scene of dead children and their father…blood scattered everywhere,” she said. 

The Rwamagana district mayor, Nehemiah Uwimana, who was among the first to arrive at the scene early in the morning, said he was shocked by the brutality with which the victims were killed.

"At the moment I am speechless. What I can tell you is that this couple was only four months old in Rwamagana district. The woman came from Burundi and the man hails from the Southern Province. She could be having a criminal record-we shall have to screen such people,” he said. 

Nyiramungu, the suspected killer, is still on the run and by press time, police and general population were still searching for her in bushes and neighboring villages. 

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