Kagame reshuffles top army leadership as tension boils up in Rwanda
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has appointed senior officers in Rwandan Army in the new RDF reshuffle.
In the reshuffle that was announced in a radio message on Tuesday evening 09th April 2019, Kagame ordered that Maj Gen Jean Jacques Mupenzi is promoted to Lt General and appointed new Rwanda Defence Forces Chief of Staff.
Kagame also promoted Gen Aloys Muganga to the rank of Major General and appointed him the new commander of Mechanised division.
The appointments
- Major General Jean Jacqous Pupenzi is promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed army chief of staff (ACOS)
- Lieutenant General Jacques Musemakweli becomes the Reserve Force chief of staff (RFCOS) while
- Major General Aloys Muganga becomes commander of the mechanized division. The appointments and redeployment take immediate effect” read the statement.
- Musemakweli has replaced Gen. Fred Ibingira who is reportedly under house arrest.
The changes come up after the Spokesperson of Rwanda’s National Liberation Front Maj Sankara Callixte said they have no option but to fight President Paul Kagame, who he described as “a dictator and murderer”.
In an interview with one of our reporters on the ground, Maj Sankara said the kidnap of refugees, harassing of the opposition and lack of freedom of expression are the reasons why his group has launched an armed struggle against the Kigali regime in Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda near Burundi border.
“MRCD and our FLN we are a revolutionary movement, we are fighting for democracy! Kagame and his dictatorship they are killing, torturing, kidnapping, non-freedom of expression, non-independent media, opposition leaders some of them are in jail for nothing, thousands of Rwandans are refugees in different countries most of them fear to lose their lives,” he added.
Mouvement Rwandais pour le Changement Démocratique [MRCD] is the political and FLN is the armed wing of a coalition of three political parties, PDR Ihumure headed by Paul Rusesabagina, CNRD headed by Gen Wilson Irategeka and RRM headed by Major Callixte Sankara that have launched an armed struggle against Kagame.
Maj Sankara said on Friday last week that the Rwanda Defence Forces had shelled the Bweyeye area which is heavily forested.
“They have also deployed heavily on the road from Kigali to Ruzizi which connects to the border with DR Congo. We warn people not to use that road,” he said.
Maj Sankara said the refugees would want to go back home but it’s not possible because “even in exile the refugees are being hunted and killed ”.
“Rwanda is in suppression and our mission is to liberate our countrymen oppressed by Kagame and his RDF/RPF and put in Rwanda a democratic government capable to live in peace,” he said. “12 millions of Rwandans have been taken in hostage by small group of criminals! All the economy of the country, big companies are in the hand of Kagame and RPF,”
However, yesterday during a presser in Kigali, Gen. Kagame downplayed the assertion by the rebels saying they are of less significance as RDF was fully in charge of Rwanda forgetting that the same words were used by late President Habyarimana Juvenal where they were also rebels in the early 1990s.
