Police upbeat about security on New Year

Rwanda National Police has announced that countrywide insecurity cases reported on New Year’s Day were very minimal compared to the previous years. According to the Police Spokesman, Inspector Willy Marcel Higiro, the criminal cases reported both on the New Year’s Eve and on the New Year’s Day were few compared to the cases that were reported on Christmas and other previous festive seasons. “A case which was registered by the police on the New Year’s day was that of Gatsibo district in Eastern Province where a six year old boy burnt a grass-thatched hut and the fires claimed the life of a another child who was sleeping in the hut,” said Higiro. The spokesman added that other minor cases registered were of some few people who drunk and fought in different places. On the roads, the national police through the traffic department towed 21 vehicles on the New Year’s Eve and 24 other of the New Year’s Day. The towing was mainly a result of excessive alcohol consumption by the drivers. Unlike on Christmas where the police towed 20 motorcycles, there were no motorcycle impounded both on the New Year’s Eve and the New Year’s Day. In an interview with the head of Traffic Police, Superintendent Robert Niyonshuti, he said that the Police had deployed across the country to ensure maximum traffic security. There was only one minor accident of a vehicle that went off-road knocking down three children; the children sustained minor injuries and were not hospitalised. Niyonshuti however added that tight night operation will continue for the next one week. Both the Minister of Internal Affairs Musa Fazil Harelimana and the head of Community Policing Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Butera said that there was no unusual case that that was reported and security maintenance was also high. Throughout the festive season police deployed heavily around town and security was further tightened more when unknown assailants made two simultaneous grenade attacks in the city two days after Christmas; the attacks left six people injured with no death cases. Ends