'Assassination' in Kigali

President Bizimungu: His adviser was gunned down in Kigali

A senior official has been shot dead outside his home in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, in what correspondents say could be a political assassination.

A nightwatchman who witnessed the incident said presidential adviser Assiel Kabera was killed by three men in military uniform who were picked up shortly afterwards by a car.

"The adviser was about to go inside his house when there was the sound of gunfire.

"When the shooting stopped we went to look at the car," he said.

"He had been hit by several shots, one of them went through his head," the nightwatchman said.

Mr Kabera is reported to have told relatives recently that he feared for his life because he thought he was being linked with the former parliamentary speaker, Joseph Sebarenzi, who fled the country recently after being accused of treason.

Mr Kabera and Mr Sebarenzi came from same town, Kibuye, and were Tutsi survivors of the 1994 genocide.

Mr Kabera was also a prominent member of the influential local and national genocide survivors associations, which have been forthright critics of the government.

WFP death

A Liberian national working for the UN food agency has also been killed by unknown attackers in Kigali, the World Food Programme announced on Monday.

WFP said Samuel Sargbah, 40, was shot dead in his car late on Saturday night in the Remera neighborhood in Kigali.

WFP Director Catherine Bertini called for a speedy investigation in his murder.

Mr Sargbah is the third WFP worker to be killed in Rwanda in the past three years.