Rwandan dissidents living in the UK who have received police warnings about assassination attempts from the African country’s agents have spoken of their shock and dismay at Rishi Sunak’s insistence that it is a safe country.
The president, Paul Kagame’s former bodyguard and a key political opponent are among at least eight people who have been told by special branch or the security services that there are “imminent threats” to their lives from the government in Kigali.
Their comments come after the prime minister’s Rwanda bill passed the initial hurdle with a majority of 44 last week, opening the way for people seeking asylum in the UK to be deported without any right of return.
Kagame’s government has been accused of being behind dozens of extraterritorial killings and kidnappings since rising to power in 2000.
Sunak has repeated the bill’s claim that Rwanda is a safe country for asylum seekers, contradicting the November ruling of the supreme court.
“We have acted quickly to remedy the issues raised by the supreme court, proving that Rwanda is not just a safe country, but a modern, prosperous nation,” Sunak said on 6 December.
Jonathan Musonera, a political opponent of Kagame, lives in Greater London with his family under strict security measures after receiving a Metropolitan police warning of an assassination attempt. He said Sunak’s claim that Rwanda is safe was “unbelievable”.
He added: “To hear that the UK now thinks Rwanda is safe makes me nervous about my situation and that of my family. I am more exposed now.
“The country that once protected Rwandan people like me from the Rwandan government has now decided that the Rwandan government is safe, despite a ruling from the highest court in the UK.
“How can I feel protected? Imagine it yourself – how can I rely on the UK government to protect me, as it has done before?
“The truth is that the UK government knows that Kagame is a cold-blooded killer who controls his country with no mercy, but the UK is saying this to get rid of the migrants.”
Musonera, a former captain in the Rwandan army, said he escaped from the country by wearing a Ugandan army uniform in 2000 after being tortured with electric shocks for refusing to fight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
He came to the UK with his family in 2001 and was given indefinite leave to remain in 2005. In 2010, he helped to establish the Rwanda National Congress, a party that sought to expose Kagame’s human rights abuses.
In 2011, Musonera was visited by four plainclothes officers who explained the UK authorities had received credible intelligence that assassins were after him. Since that moment, the family have been forced to change their identities, employ strict security measures and become wary of strangers.
The officers handed him a single page headed “Threats to Life Warning Notice”, which spelled out the danger his family faced in stark, short sentences.
It said: “Reliable intelligence states that the Rwandan government poses an imminent threat to your life … You should be aware of other high-profile cases where action such as this has been conducted in the past. Conventional and unconventional means have been used.
“I therefore suggest that you take remedial action as you see fit to increase your own safety measures, eg house burglar alarms, change of daily routines, always walk with an associate, carry a mobile phone, install a domestic CCTV door guard system, increase house security measures, eg locks and bolts. It may even be that you decide … to leave the area for the foreseeable future.”
Musonera said he wanted his photo to be shared across the media to show he had not been intimidated by the alleged threats.
Noble Marara, 48, who was Kagame’s bodyguard but was forced to flee to the UK in 2000 after being accused of spying, received warnings in 2011 and 2018 about threats to assassinate him from the Rwandan government.
Living under an assumed name, he now works as a senior manager in healthcare in southern England. Marara said he may leave the UK next year after Sunak’s decision to declare Rwanda a safe country.
“This country is kneeling before a dictator as never before,” he said. “I am no longer safe here, and the agents of Kagame do what Kagame asks. He is ruthless and has hunted down his enemies before.
“I may have to leave, because I cannot trust the government if they claim Rwanda is safe. If I stay, I will be constantly waiting for something to happen to me.”
Marara worked as a driver and personal bodyguard to Kagame in the 1990s, during which time he lived in a tent in the presidential grounds, planned the president’s travel arrangements and plotted the route of his convoys.
Marara said he received a phone call from the security services in early 2022 saying he was now safe, and the threat had subsided. He is sceptical about whether this is the case, saying it was months before the deportation deal with Rwanda was announced by Boris Johnson in April 2022.
“How come I am all of a sudden safe? When I tried to insist that they explain, the security services said they could not give me details,” he said. “I know that Kagame’s agents are still looking for me and I am still hiding.”
Earlier this month, the UK and Rwanda signed a treaty saying that Rwanda would not send asylum seekers back to their home countries – one of the concerns raised by the supreme court. It has since emerged that the UK has promised £290m for the deportation deal up to and including 2024, and will also pay two more tranches of cash in 2025 and 2026.
A report by Human Rights Watch in October detailed an alleged campaign of extraterritorial killings, kidnappings and intimidation, as well as arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances on Rwandan soil.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Rwanda is a safe country that cares deeply about supporting refugees. It hosts more than 135,000 asylum seekers and stands ready to relocate people and help them rebuild their lives.
“We have worked closely with the Rwandan government to address the supreme court’s findings, including through a binding treaty that makes clear people will not be returned to an unsafe country and through our safety of Rwanda bill – the toughest immigration legislation ever introduced to parliament.”
The Rwandan government has been approached for comment.
