A well-known group of Rwandan refugees in Mozambique, who told police there was a plot to kill him, has been killed.
Révocat Karemangingo was the leader of the Rwandan army that was defeated in 1994 by the military led by President Paul Kagame.
In Mozambique he became a businessman and did not get involved in politics, the leader of the refugee group said.
The Rwandan government has been criticized for targeting dissidents living abroad.
He has always denied this.
Karemangingo, a former treasurer of the Rwandan refugee agency, was on his way to his home near Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, when his car was hidden on Monday.
He was shot six times, police said.
No arrests have been made yet and police have no plans to kill the man.
‘Tested in 2016’
Karemangingo has warned officials that there are people close to Rwanda who are trying to assassinate him, Refugee President Cléophas Habiyaremye told the BBC.
Rwanda’s top ambassador to Mozambique could not be reached for comment.
The old assassination plan in 2016 failed because he unexpectedly changed the car he was traveling in, Habiyaremye added.
Karemangingo was one of the suspects in the assassination of his Rwandan counterpart, Louis Baziga in 2019, who was then the leader of the Rwandan house party in Mozambique.
But he was acquitted of participating in the killings and did not participate in Rwandan politics, Habiyaremye said.
Mr Karemangingo’s death comes three months after he was arrested by Mozambican police Cassien Ntamuhanga, a former journalist who turned out to be a detective who escaped from a prison in Rwanda. From then on he was arrested.
Three weeks ago there was an attempt to assassinate the secretary of the refugee agency, the chairman said.
Human rights groups have accused Rwanda of seeking or killing foreign opposition members who engage in – or appear to be involved in – activities against the government.
The Rwandan government has also criticized some Rwandan refugees for their actions or for providing funds to combat the country.
In neighboring South Africa, a Rwandan opposition political leader Seif Bamporiki was shot dead in February.
Former head of madness in Rwanda Patrick Karegeya was killed in a hotel room in Johannesburg in 2014.
Former army chief Gen Faustin Nyamwasa was shot and wounded in the same city in 2010.
The Rwandan government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killings.