Rwanda police kill two who left their homes during COVID-19 lockdown

Rwandan police have reportedly shot and killed two individuals who broke lockdown orders sanctioned by the government as part of the control of the spread of coronavirus.

Bloomberg News reported that the two 20-something-year-olds “attempted to tussle with officers.”

The report said the incident was confirmed via phone call to Rwanda’s national police spokesperson, John Bosco Kabera.

Like many other countries fighting the spread of the coronavirus, Rwanda pronounced a two-week lockdown that prohibits travel between cities and towns. People are also expected to stay home.

On Wednesday, it was reported that another man in Rwanda breached the government’s instruction to stay at home during the nationwide lockdown to go fishing and has been “killed and eaten” by a crocodile.

Alice Kayitesi, the mayor of the southern Kamonyi district, confirmed the tragic incident which occurred in the Nyabarongo river on Wednesday. The victim’s name and age have not been made public yet.

“He had broken the stay-home rule, he’s among very few people here who are not cooperating with the lockdown to stop the coronavirus,” Ms Kayitesi  told the BBC.

Fear has gripped the country’s poor who wonder where the next meal might come from when they are not able to work. But the government has vouched to lend its support to the people having a hard time securing food during the lockdown.

Africa has over 2,000 known cases across 43 countries and 64 deaths recorded so far. South Africa has recorded more than 600 cases, followed by Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Burkina Faso and Senegal, according to the World Health Organization’s latest figures.