Marc Nduwamahoro, member of the district office in Kirundo (northern Burundi) and a neighbor have been detained in a local police cell since Saturday. They are suspected of having killed a thief at Nduwamahoro’s home on Saturday around 2 a.m. Residents are demanding a flagrant trial.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The murder for which the two men are being prosecuted took place in the Nyange-Bushaza neighborhood in the town center of Kirundo province. According to witnesses, the two suspects beat a thief to death. The victim was recognized. Sibomana nicknamed Gapoco was from the locality of Kanyinya, in the Gikuyo zone (same district and province of Kirundo).

Residents say the young man was beaten to death by Mr. Nduwamahoro and his neighbor Jean Baptiste Ntezukwigira.

« The victim had entered Marc’s plot. He was caught picking a bunch of bananas. We heard cries of distress for a while but the two men put a piece of cloth in his mouth to stop him from crying for help, » residents of Nyange-Bushaza told SOS Médias Burundi.

Sibomana’s body was discovered on Saturday morning, on a property of the Catholic parish of Kanyinya.

« It is the two men who threw him there, » insist residents of the Kirundo town center.

Alerted by witnesses to the macabre discovery, the local police arrested the two suspects. They are held in a police cell in the provincial town center. The police say they have opened an investigation into the case.

Marc Nduwamahoro is a zealous CNDD-FDD activist, according to local sources. This man in charge of the finance department in the Vumbi health district (same province), also belongs to the CNDD-FDD youth league, the Imbonerakure of the ruling party and is a member of the Kirundo district council.

Residents who spoke to SOS Médias Burundi are demanding a flagrant trial. They fear a release influenced by Marc Nduwamahoro’s position within the ruling party.

According to information that SOS Médias Burundi has not been able to verify, Marc Nduwamahoro allegedly killed another thief last October in the same circumstances, an act that the perpetrator continues to praise.

The provincial prosecutor’s office had not yet communicated on this case.

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Marc Nduwamahoro, CNDD-FDD official prosecuted for murder of a thief in Kirundo, DR