A Rwandan businessman has been shot dead in Matola municipality, a few kilometres outside the Mozambican capital, Maputo.
Revocant Karemangingo was shot about 50m (164ft) from his residence in the Liberdade neighbourhood on Monday afternoon.
He was reportedly confronted by gunmen on three vehicles who intercepted his car before they fired a hail of bullets at him.
The killers are so far not known, much less the reasons for the crime that shocked the neighbourhood and the Rwandan community in Mozambique.
The police were at the scene for forensic work and the body was taken to a provincial hospital.
Some Rwandans have told reporters that the deceased was among people who were being targeted because of their opposition to the current government in their home country.
The Association of Rwandan Refugees in Mozambique said Karemangingo was a refugee doing pharmaceutical business and a victim of persecution by President Paul Kagame’s government.
The Rwandan community has asked the Mozambican government to provide more protection.
In 2019, another Rwandan, Louis Baziga, was shot dead in a similar style in a Maputo suburb after gunmen intercepted his car. He was a known supporter of the Rwandan government.
The Rwandan government has been accused in the past of carrying out targeted killings to dissidents out of the country – claims which it has vehemently denied.
Who is Revocant Karemangingo ?
Revocant Karemangingo, the businessman who was gunned down in Mozambique on Monday, was a lieutenant serving in Rwanda’s army that was ousted in 1994.
He fled to Mozambique when Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took over power.
Karemangingo settled in Maputo as a refugee and became a prominent businessman in pharmaceuticals.
While in Mozambique, he’s believed to have clandestinely been involved in politics in Rwanda.
However the head of the Rwandan refugees association in Mozambique, Cleophas Habiyaremye, denies this, saying that Karemangingo was just a refugee doing his business for a living.
Karemangingo was a suspect in the assassination of Louis Baziga the former leader of the pro-Rwandan government Diaspora Association in Mozambique, who was shot dead in Maputo in August 2019.
However, Mr Habiyaremye told the BBC that Mr Karemangingo had been cleared by courts on the suspected role in Baziga’s killing.
BBC News Africa
