South Africa turn heat up on Rwanda over shooting of exiled army chief

The Rwandan government is saying that it is concerned about remarks by a senior South African diplomat insinuating that Kigali agents are behind last month’s shooting in Johannesburg of former army chief General Faustin Nyamwasa.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame Reuters

The diplomat in question, Ayande Ntsalube, responded by saying that he was not pointing any fingers and repeated that any action on South African soil would be regarded as an act of hostility.

Ntsalube is also refusing to comment on speculation in the Rwandan media, says RFI's Jean-Jacques Cornish.

This includes an allegation that Nyamwasa’s brother-in-law, the lawyer Frank Ntwali, has been involved in the shooting of the former army chief.

The exiled general was shot and seriously wounded outside his home in Johannesburg on 19 June.

Earlier this month, the South African foreign ministry suggested foreign agents were involved in the assassination attempt but did not elaborate as to which country they were from.

Nyamwasa, a former comrade-in-arms of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, was one of two generals accused by the Rwandan government of masterminding a recent string of grenade attacks in Kigali.