Rwandan opposition politician strangled to death, body dumped in forest

The spokesman for leading Rwandan opposition politician, Victoire Ingabire, was found dead on Sunday, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau has reported.

Ingabire is one of the main opposition figures in the country and the president of the United Democratic Forces party.

It was not immediately clear how 30-year-old Anselme Mutuyimana had died but Rwandan authorities said they were investigating the death.
"The investigation has started. No suspects so far," said the spokesman for the Rwanda Investigation Bureau, Modeste Mbabazi.

Mutuyimana's elder brother Augustin Tubanambazi is reported to have said that the body had no visible wounds, but had blood in its mouth.

However, according to a press statement issued by the United Democratic Forces party, Mutuyimana’s body was found dumped in a forest after being strangled to death.
“There is a strong suspicion that he was waylaid by criminals who killed and dumped him in the forest. According to those who saw the body, he died of strangulation, a technique of killing that has become common in Rwanda and in murders of Rwandan dissidents abroad,” the statement partly read.

Ingabire, who returned from the Netherlands to contest a presidential election in 2010, had previously served six years of a 15-year sentence for inciting insurrection.

In January 2014 Mutuyimana was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison, he was released from Mpanga Prison in 2018, the same year FDU-Inkingi party leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza was pardoned.