Former Rwandan diplomat dies in Burundian prison

Rwandans have expressed sadness over the demise of one of their own, Jacques Bihozagara, former Rwanda’s ambassador to Belgium, who is alleged to have been assassinated in Burundi’s Mpimba prison where he was jailed. News of his death that widely circulated yesterday evening on social media was later confirmed by Rwanda’s Ambassador to Burundi, Amandin Rugira, on his twitter handle. The exact cause of his death was however yet to be confirmed. In a response to a tweet addressed to him by one journalist, the Ambassador twitted, “We got the information this afternoon that Bihozagara died at Mpimba prison, but we don’t know yet, the reason of his death.” Rwandans took to twitter to condemn the alleged assassination, saying his death is yet another direct confrontation from Burundi and calling for immediate explanations. MP Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi twitted that Bihozagara’s death was heart-breaking and called on the government of Burundi to shed more light on the circumstances under which he died. Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s ambassador in Belgium also twitted, “Saddened by assassination in a Burundian prison, of Amb Jacques #Bihozagara one of my predecessors in Belgium.” Reports say the late Bihozagara was arrested last December and imprisoned at Mpimba prison over allegations of espionage, when he was on a private business trip to Burundi. The deceased served in cabinet in the post-Genocide government before being appointed ambassador to Belgium. He had set himself to doing private business in Burundi, a country in which he had lived before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.