Rwandan soldier kills five in bar shooting

By : AFP

Date: 13 November 2024 4:32pm WAT

Some of the 24 armoured vehicles donated by the United States to the Nigerian military at the Nigerian Army 9th Brigade Parade Ground in Lagos, on January 7, 2016. The U.S. government donated the vehicles to help fight Boko Haram, an extremist group whose six-year insurgency has killed over 17,000 people. / AFP / STEFAN HEUNIS (Photo credit should read STEFAN HEUNIS/AFP/Getty Images)

A Rwandan soldier on Wednesday opened fire in a bar and killed five civilians in a southwestern town of the country, the army said.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the early morning shooting.

But the Rwandan Defence Forces (RDF) identified the gunman as a 39-year-old sergeant.

“RDF has arrested the suspect and will take necessary legal action against him,” the east African country’s military said in a statement.

In 2020, six Rwandan soldiers were arrested for allegedly raping and beating civilians during the Covid pandemic lockdown in the Kangondo slum in the capital Kigali.