One of the students, Ms. Monica said despite the Rwandan authorities trying to resolve the matter by apprehending the culprits, no official statement was heard from Juba.

By Ajah Jannifer

South Sudanese students in Kigali, Rwanda, said they were disappointed by their government’s failure to respond to the recent incident in Rwanda.

One of the students, Ms. Monica said despite the Rwandan authorities trying to resolve the matter by apprehending the culprits, no official statement was heard from Juba.

“There has been no intervention by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve or support their citizens in Rwanda,” she said.

According to her, most youth who were involved in the fight were not South Sudanese nationals as exaggerated in the social media.

However, Monica said the situation is calm and students have resumed their normal studies.

Olivier Nduhungirehe, the Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs posted on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) that violence has no place in their society, and recent comments targeting the South Sudanese community were not in line with their values as Rwandans.

Also, he emphasized on the need to remain calm and trust the security and justice systems to address this incident in accordance with the law.

Ms. Monica disclosed that the student representatives are set for a meeting in Kampala, Uganda to discuss the issues that have arisen due to the recent incident in Kigali.

The meeting is being hosted by the Ugandan ambassador to South Sudan since South Sudan does not have an embassy in Rwanda despite being a member of the East African Community.

Meanwhile, in an interview with The City Review yesterday, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there are ongoing discussions between Juba and Kigali over the matter.

He said once the talks are over, the ministry will update the public, “but right now there is no official statement I can give.”  

Last week, unverified rumors about youths from South Sudan fighting and causing chaos in Kigali spread on social media, prompting some Rwandese to engage in hate campaigns, as some called for the deportation of the foreign nationals. However, the Rwanda National Police spokesperson, Boniface Rutikanga, said the incident was being greatly exaggerated by social media users.

It is disproportionate, and does not reflect the reality of the situation, he said.

In an interview with Radio Eye from Kigali on Tuesday, Boniface assured South Sudanese in Rwanda not to worry about the negative campaign on social media.  “People should not worry about what is going on social media, but they should learn to understand that the truth does not always come from social media,” he said.

 “So, they should be calm, there’s no problem. That’s the guarantee I can give you, and I think if something was a problem, we probably should have noticed it from the beginning. We tell our brothers and sisters in South Sudan that there is no need to worry, there is no problem at all,” he said.

However, the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs would later write a letter inviting the Charge d’Affaires of the South Sudanese Embassy in Kampala, to which Rwanda belongs, due to the absence of a South Sudanese diplomatic mission there, to an urgent meeting aimed at addressing issues of concern to the South Sudanese community in Rwanda.

The ministry, in the letter seen by The City Review, also invited representatives of the South Sudanese community to attend. The meeting was scheduled for Friday, January 3, 2025.