He has just spent a week in a coma at the Prince Regent Charles Hospital. The chief of the Imbonerakure in the Kigwati quarter of the Nyakabiga zone is said to have provoked an agent of the National Intelligence Service and the latter smashed him. Originally, it was the imbonerakure patrol in the early morning of Wednesday last week. Our sources believe that if the leader of the imbonerakure in Kigwati Ladeck managed to survive, it would be a miracle. (Le Mandat)
In the common room number 36 of the Prince Régent Charles Hospital, Ladeck is hardly moving according to witnesses. This imbonerakure, who is one of the tax collectors in Bujumbura town hall, does not speak either. With bandages wrapped around his deformed head on the right side, the leader of the CNDD-FDD youth wing in Kigwati has been fed intravenously for several days in this six-bed room. According to our sources, some militants of the ruling party in Nyakabiga and police officers in civilian clothes regularly visit him.
It all started during a night patrol
Two Imbonerakure from Kigwati and their chief Ladeck came across Petit during a patrol in Nyakabiga 3, more precisely at 10th Avenue. It is almost two o’clock. Petit, the manager of the bar ‘La Diffusion’ located on Fifth Avenue in the same neighbourhood opposite the Mutanga campus of the University of Burundi, is less than ten metres from his home. He has just returned, as usual, after the departure of the last customer of his father’s business, retired from the army. The three imbonerakure, carrying a long stick, stopped him and started to beat him up, according to Petit, in front of the chief of Nyakabiga 3. Our sources indicate that Petit managed to flee and headed towards the 9th Avenue and that he started to shout for help in front of the gate of the chief of Nyakabiga 3 Bonaventure Ndayishimiye. Petit explained to the chief and other inhabitants of the quarter, who had come out of their houses, that he did not know why the three individuals were chasing him. “He was about to climb a wall. We must correct him,” replied one of the imbonerakure, according to witnesses. Despite several attempts, the chief of the quarter did not manage to convince the imbonerakure to leave, according to our sources.
A ‘documentation officer’ and a police officer
A person believed to be an agent of the National Intelligence Service and a policeman, in a car, pass by. The disputes continue. After the confiscation of a stick used in turn by the imbonerakure to hit anyone who dares to plead for Petit, the ‘SNR agent’ is very nervous. So are the imbonerakure. “Each time, it is the chief of the quarter Bonaventure and the police officer who calm the situation when they try to come to blows,” a witness told us. The “documentation officer” kept telling the imbonerakure that they had overstepped their area during the patrol, according to witnesses.
The ‘fatal’ blow
After about an hour of arm wrestling, the “documentation officer” told all those present to return to their homes, according to our sources. Petit took the opportunity to leave, according to the same sources. But when the ‘documentation officer’ takes the 8th Avenue to go home with the policeman, the three imbonerakure follow them according to our sources. A few minutes later, Ladeck was found screaming in pain on the ground. “After about five minutes, we heard screams. When we got there, the young man’s head had a large opening and was bleeding a lot. We don’t know what really happened but his two friends had fled,” said a resident of Nyakabiga.
The “documentation officer” is detained
It was planned that this Thursday, the “agent of the National Intelligence Service” would be transferred, on the instruction of an officer of the Judicial Police of Nyakabiga, to the municipal police station, ex-BSR (Bureau Spécial de Recherche). He has just spent about five days in the dungeons of the Nyakabiga zone after having been arrested by the chief of the police station of this zone located in the commune of Mukaza in Bujumbura city. The policeman was released by the chief of police on Friday, according to our sources.
The bar “La Diffusion” is operating timidly in the absence of its manager
Some employees of the bar are afraid according to our sources. They say that they do not know where Petit is now after receiving a phone call from Nyakabiga zone chief Gervais Ndihokubwayo. Our sources report that Petit’s right eye is seriously injured after being beaten by the three imbonerakure. They also report that his arms are also injured. According to our sources, the owner of the bar ‘La Diffusion’, who lives in the interior of the country, has been in the city of Bujumbura for several days to monitor the situation closely.
Contacted by phone, the head of the Nyakabiga zone Gervais Ndihokubwaho refused to comment on the case.
