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KIGALI, May 8 (AFP) - Some 20 people armed with grenades, machetes and clubs assaulted Rwanda's Education Minister Agathe Uwiligiyimana at her home in Kigali late Thursday, she told AFP Friday.
They broke bones in her right foot, trampled on her and beat her about the head, the minister said.
They also stole clothing and 25,000 Rwandan francs (about 200 dollars) in cash.
While waiting for a state-provided home, the newly appointed minister had been living in her private house without guards or a security system.
Uwilingiyimana is a member of Rwanda's main opposition party, the Democratic Republican Movement (MDR) and one of three women appointed to a transition government formed on April 16 by opposition premier Dismas Nsengiyaremye.
Since March and a series of constitutional reforms, Kigali and other towns have seen a spate of unclaimed bomb attacks that have killed more than 30 people and injured several dozen.
The authorities blame rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR), a movement largely made up of exiles from the minority Tutsi people who launched an insurrection some 19 months ago.
The opposition, however, accuses the formerly single ruling Republican National Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) of seeking to spread "insecurity" in a bid to discredit the government of interim Prime Minister Dismas Nsengiyaremye, an opposition leader responsible for overseeing the run-up to multi-party elections.
mgu-jpc/nb/aln AFP AFP SEQN-0247
