Mozambican police denied having him in custody. These witnesses also reported seeing a
man who was with the police speaking to Ntamuhanga in Kinyarwanda, which is spoken by
Rwandans. His whereabouts remain unknown.
In August 2020, Paul Rusesabagina, a prominent critic of the RPF, was abducted and then
forcibly disappeared while traveling through Dubai, UAE. Rusesabagina co-founded the
opposition Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (Mouvement rwandais pour le
changement démocratique, or MRCD), a coalition of opposition groups, which has an
armed wing known as the National Liberation Forces (Forces de libération nationale, or
FLN). The FLN has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Rwanda’s Southern Province
since 2018.
Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen and a US resident, had fled to Belgium from Rwanda two
decades earlier. Three days after he disappeared in Dubai, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau
announced Rusesabagina was in their custody. According to Human Rights Watch research,
Rusesabagina was in the custody of Rwandan authorities or their proxies as of the night of
August 27, 2020, but his detention was not acknowledged until August 31, meaning he was
forcibly disappeared for at least three days. During this time, and afterwards, Rusesabagina
was subjected to ill treatment and other serious human rights violations. Human Rights
Watch called the subsequent trial of Rusesabagina in Rwanda “flawed” and “riddled with
irregularities and evidence of political interference.” On September 20, 2021, he was
sentenced to 25 years in prison. In March 2023, following diplomatic pressure,
Rusesabagina was released from prison and flown to the United States.
South Sudan
The South Sudanese government has targeted dissidents, including registered refugees,
living abroad in Kenya and Uganda. Human Rights Watch has reported on the risk of torture
and other abuses that refugees and asylum seekers face if returned to South Sudan.
In January 2017, two outspoken critics of South Sudan’s government, Dong Samuel Luak, a
prominent South Sudanese lawyer and human rights activist, and Aggrey Ezbon Idri, a
member of the armed political opposition, were abducted from the streets of Nairobi,
Kenya. In April 2019, the United Nations Panel of Experts on South Sudan issued a report
that found that South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) were responsible for the
abduction. The report detailed that the NSS flew the two men to South Sudan on a
“WE WILL FIND YOU”
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