Rwanda has detained four businessmen and three senior officials from the Mines, Petroleum, and Gas Board on suspicion of corruption and power abuse.
Rwanda’s Investigation Bureau said the trio — Augustin Rwomushana, John Kanyangira and Richard Niyongabo — were being jailed in the capital, Kigali, without giving a date for their arrests.
It was unclear whether the officials were linked to the illicit traffic in minerals from the resource-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwanda is accused of backing anti-government fighters to syphon off its neighbour’s rich veins of key minerals.
Kanyangira was in charge of traceability at the board, which is tasked with regulating mining activities, while Niyongabo was in charge of mining and Rwomushana took responsibility for strategy and the minerals market.
“They were arrested along with four business men suspected to be accomplices in crimes of corruption, abusing power entrusted to them by using their offices for their personal interests, unlawful amassing of wealth and money laundering,” the bureau’s statement said.
The announcement comes after the European Union in March slapped sanctions on the board’s head, Francis Kamanzi, over Rwanda’s backing for the M23 armed group.
Kamanzi, accused of using the conflict to engage in the illicit exploitation and trade of the eastern DRC’s mineral resources, has had his assets frozen and has been banned from travelling to the EU.
A report by United Nations experts found that Kigali exerts de facto control over the M23 and has maintains 4,000 Rwandan troops in the DRC to support the armed group.
The DRC has accused Rwanda of backing the M23 as a way of stealing the valuable minerals including gold and coltan present in the country’s restive east.
Rwanda denies offering the M23 military backing.
But it insists that it faces a persistent threat from armed fighters present in the DRC’s east linked to ethnic Hutus involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
