The non-governmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW) today accused the Rwandan authorities of committing serious human rights violations in detention centers, notably torture.
Rwanda, ruled with an iron fist for around 30 years by Paul Kagame, is regularly accused by NGOs of repressing freedom of expression, criticism and political opposition.
HRW’s accusations are based on interviews carried out between 2019 and 2024 with around 30 people, including former detainees, an analysis of court documents and interviews published online.
The NGO warns that “serious human rights abuses, including torture, are common in many of Rwanda’s detention centers”, denouncing the fact that only one senior prison official has been held accountable.
According to HRW, interviews with former detainees at Kwa Gacinya, an “unofficial detention center” under police control in the capital, Kigali, revealed a “pattern of ill-treatment, mock executions, beatings and torture dating back to at least least 2011”.
HRW says it contacted the Government in September about the report’s findings, but had not received any response by the time of publication.
However, government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo reacted after the findings were released, saying the NGO does not “have a monopoly on human rights and has proven on numerous occasions that it is not a serious or reliable source of information.”
HRW examined court documents from 25 people accused of security-related crimes, several of whom claimed to have been held incommunicado in “coffin-style” cells for five to six months.
“When we arrived, they beat me almost to death until I started vomiting blood,” said one of them, alleging she was forced to confess to crimes for which she was later charged.
HRW also collected testimonies from former inmates of Nyarugenge and Rubavu prisons, which one described as “a hell”, with prisoners beaten in tanks of dirty water.
HRW stated that Rwanda “has not investigated or responded to credible and repeated allegations of torture made by detainees or former detainees since at least 2017” and is impeding investigations by international bodies.
Some trials were held, but several senior officials were acquitted “despite apparently overwhelming evidence against them,” according to HRW.
Innocent Kayumba, former director of Rubavu and Nyarugenge prisons, was convicted of murdering a detainee and sentenced to 15 years in prison – “partial justice” for HRW because he was acquitted of torture, “punishable by a longer sentence” heavy sentence ranging from 20 years to life in prison”, explains HRW.
Rwanda has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with 637 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, according to a 2024 report by the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research.
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