Burundi police arrest 3 suspects involved in former minister murder

Police have arrested three suspects in the assassination on July 13 of Hafsa Mossi, a Burundian lawmaker at the East African Legislative Assembly and former Burundian minister, police said Friday in a statement.

"On Thursday, security agents arrested three suspects involved in the killing of Hafsa Mossi assassinated in the Burundian capital Bujumbura on July 13. Those persons were arrested while they were preparing to kill an adviser at the Burundian president's office," said Burundian Police Spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye.

According to Nkurikiye, more information about the killing of Hafsa Mossi was received after a police search operation which was conducted Thursday afternoon at a suspicious house near the place where Hafsa Mossi was killed in Gihosha residential area.

"The first information received from the suspects showed that the suspects admitted that they had received orders and funding from their colleagues based in Kigali, Rwanda," said Nkurikiye.

Hafsa Mossi was shot by two unidentified gunmen at Nyankoni Avenue in Gihosha in the north of the Burundian capital Bujumbura, near her home.

She had left her home and was driving along Nyankoni Avenue in Bujumbura when she was ambushed by gunmen. She died later when she was evacuated to hospital.

Hafsa Mossi occupied several high posts in the Burundian government and at the Burundian president's office.

In 2005, she was appointed as the spokeswoman for Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, then served as Burundi's minister for information and East African Community (EAC) affairs before joining the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in June 2012 as a lawmaker for Burundi.

Hafsa Mossi, 52, was a member of the Burundian ruling party, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) and a former journalist for Burundi National Radio and the BBC. Endit