PF Cadre Echoes Rwanda Genocide In Threat To UPND

A member of the Patriotic Front (PF) has issued a warning to the UPND which echoes the language used during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, saying the PF will not hesitate to kill the ‘rats and cockroaches’ which oppose President Lungu.

In a video posted to YouTube on Monday, the PF official compares Muchinga Province to the bedroom of President Lungu, saying “we as his sons are always ready to take care of the bedroom; to even kill the cockroaches as well as rats that enter our father’s bedroom”.

 “So, the UPND should not provoke anyone … otherwise we are ready to take care of our father’s bedroom,” he went on to say.

The video carries clear overtones of the Rwandan genocide, during which Tutsi people were referred to as inyenzi or cockroaches. The genocide resulted in the deaths of between 500,000 and 1,064,016 Tutsi and Twa people. 

The PF official did emphasise that President Lungu is a ‘peaceful president’ and called on PF youths to ‘remain calm’, however several commentators have already deemed the video an act of aggression.

President Lungu has yet to condemn the video, which has been online since Monday.