20 Jun 2010

Former army chief shot outside home

10:14 am on 20 June 2010

A former chief of staff of the Rwandan army is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot outside his home in South Africa.

Lieutenant-General Kayumba Nyamwasa, a critic of President Paul Kagame, has been living in Johannesburg since fleeing Rwanda in February.

He was shot in the stomach. His wife Rosette told the BBC they had returned home from shopping at midday on Saturday when a gunman opened fire on the car. She said it was an assassination attempt.

Presidential elections are due to be held in Rwanda in August - the second since the genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 1994.

The BBC reports Lieutenant-General Nyamwasa was one of President Kagame's closest confidants, until they fell out. Since arriving in South Africa, he has accused the president of corruption.