Residents’ occupation delay schools opening

Three primary schools in Rwanda’s northwestern prefecture of Gisenyi failed to open for the new academic year following their occupation by some 600 families, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported. The families, a caseload of refugee returnees, had reportedly been occupying “other people’s houses” within the prefecture, until recently when the prefecture authorities ordered them out. They vacated the houses, but moved in to occupy Muhato, Gacuba II and Umubano primary schools “in protest”.

The reopening of the schools was suspended as a result because the “pupils have nowhere to attend classes”, RNA said. The families have reportedly expressed their grievances to the prefecture authorities for not providing them with alternative housing and they have vowed not to leave the schools “unless a resettlement alternative has been arranged”.