Global media rights group says gunmen have killed top Rwandan editor

Top Rwandan editor killed by gunmen

NAIROBI, Kenya — A global media rights group says gunmen have killed a top Rwandan editor in the Rwandan capital.

Reporters Without Borders says Jean-Leonard Rugambage, deputy editor of the independent newspaper Umuvugizi, was killed outside his home late Thursday.

Rwanda’s media regulator has suspended Umuvugizi from publishing for six months for violating the country’s media laws. Its editor fled to neighboring Uganda in May.

“As the August presidential election approaches, the government is organizing a tightly controlled and monolithic electoral campaign in which all sources of criticism are being suppressed. This undertaking seems to have culminated in the ambushing and murder of this renowned journalist,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement Friday.