Rwanda Rebels “Killed and Stole Army Uniforms”

The Rwandan army has denied claims by a rebel group that 20 of its soldiers were killed and had their weapons and uniforms stolen.

They were responding to a statement made by Herman Nsengimana, a spokesman for the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) rebel group.

Mr Nsengimana told BBC Africa “we killed 20 of them and lost one of ours… The Rwandan army uniforms you saw us wearing, their identity cards we have shown, where do you think we got them from?”

“We have moved them form their position and collected their belongings”, he added.

But army spokesman Lt Col Innocent Munyengango, hit back, dismissing the claims as “baseless social media posts”.

He added that the southwest region of the country, near to the border with Burundi, where the FLN claim the attack occurred, is a safe part of the country that experiences little violence.

The FLN is a rebel group based out of the Nyungwe Forest, in the southwest of the country, and has emerged within the last year opposed to the government of Paul Kagame.