Rwandan police on Sunday said the death toll from Friday night’s deadly attack close to famous Volcanoes National Park rose to 14 after some victims died from injuries.
A group of unknown assailants equipped with crude weapons including knives, pangas and guns attacked a village in Kinigi sector, Musanze District in northern Rwanda, around 9:30 p.m. on Friday.
Kinigi sector hosts the headquarters of Volcanoes National Park where endangered mountain gorillas live. The wounded are receiving treatment in Ruhengeri Hospital in Musanze District, police spokesperson John Bosco Kabera told Xinhua in a telephone interview.
“The police and sister security agencies continue hunting down the assailants as investigations continue in order to find the motive behind the attacks on local residents in Kinigi,” he said.
Security organs killed 19 attackers and arrested five in pursuit of the attackers, the police said in a statement earlier on Sunday.
The police said the attack indicates the “cruelty” of the attackers as some of the victims were stabbed to death at home.
Assuring the public that security has been restored in the area, the police said the hunt is still ongoing for all those with links to the attack.
Tourism services continue to operate normally in Volcanoes National Park and all other national parks and attractions in Rwanda, Rwanda Development Board said in a statement earlier on Saturday. All visitors to Volcanoes National Park were and continue to be safe, said the government agency. Rwanda will continue to prioritise safety and security of tourism, it added.
Rwanda sold 15,132 mountain gorilla permits worth 19.2 million U.S. dollars to tourists in 2018, statistics from Rwanda Development Board showed. Last month, about 50,000 people from Rwanda and abroad including Rwandan President Paul Kagame, senior government officials, world famous celebrities attended the annual mountain gorillas naming ceremony Kwita Izina in Kinigi.
There are over 1,000 mountain gorillas living in the world, more than half of which live in the Virunga Mountains, where Volcanoes National Park lies, according to World Wildlife Fund. -Xinhua
