Rwandan Genocide Accused Félicien Kabuga Dies

The Life and Legacy of Félicien Kabuga

Félicien Kabuga, a Rwandan business magnate who spent decades evading justice after allegedly financing the 1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, passed away on May 16 in The Hague. He was believed to be at least 90 years old. The United Nations did not immediately release the cause of death.

For many, Mr. Kabuga symbolized the deep wounds that have persisted in Rwanda since the massacre that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands. Using his vast wealth and the support of family and associates abroad, he managed to remain a fugitive for 26 years, despite a $5 million U.S. government bounty for information leading to his capture.

As Rwanda’s most-wanted man, Mr. Kabuga was once one of its wealthiest entrepreneurs. He is alleged to have funded and armed extremist Hutu militias known as the Interahamwe, supplying them with truckloads of machetes and hoes. During the 100-day conflict, these militias were responsible for the deaths of over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Mr. Kabuga, an ethnic Hutu himself, also co-founded and financed the private radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which incited Hutus to "kill the Tutsi cockroaches." Survivors described the station as the "voice of genocide," as it spread anti-Tutsi propaganda that fueled the violence.

In 1998, the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda indicted Mr. Kabuga on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, along with five other counts of violating international humanitarian law.

French investigators finally located him in May 2020 in a third-floor apartment in the Paris suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine, where he had been living under a false identity. During a bail hearing, Mr. Kabuga denied the allegations, calling them "lies" and claiming he had never killed any Tutsis. "I was working with them," he reportedly said.

To genocide survivors, Mr. Kabuga was seen as the mastermind behind their suffering. Benoit Kaboyi, the executive secretary of Ibuka, Rwanda’s largest genocide survivors group, once compared him to "our Osama bin Laden."

Early Life and Rise to Wealth

Félicien Kabuga is believed to have been born on July 19, 1935, when Rwanda was a Belgian colony, though he occasionally claimed to have been born earlier. His birthplace is also disputed, with some reports suggesting he was born in the town of Munig, while others say his hometown was the hamlet of Nyange, about two hours north of Kigali.

He grew up in poverty, living in a small yellow house with six siblings. Mr. Kabuga received no formal education, instead working on the family farm. As a teenager, he made baskets and traded them for beans that he later sold in the market. With the money he earned, he pursued various business ventures, including trucking and the import and export of goods. However, he made his fortune primarily through the tea trade.

Like many Rwandans, Mr. Kabuga spoke Kinyarwanda, French, and Swahili. He learned English to expand his businesses into former British colonies such as Kenya and Uganda, according to relatives and neighbors.

Mr. Kabuga married Josephine Mukazitoni, and they had at least five children. His rise to prosperity and political influence began when one of his daughters married the son of President Juvénal Habyarimana, who died in a mysterious plane crash in 1994 that triggered the genocide. This marriage granted Mr. Kabuga access to the Hutu elite, where he became an influential business adviser to the government.

Role in the Genocide

In the weeks before and after Habyarimana’s death, Mr. Kabuga served as the president of the country’s National Defense Fund, through which he allegedly provided funds to the interim Rwandan government for the purposes of executing the mass slaughter. According to the U.S. State Department’s reward offer for Mr. Kabuga, he also allegedly gave logistical support to the Interahamwe militiamen by issuing them weapons and uniforms and providing transport in his company’s vehicles.

After Tutsi rebels led by Paul Kagame seized power, Mr. Kabuga fled to Switzerland but was denied asylum and returned to sub-Saharan Africa. As Kagame solidified his rule, Mr. Kabuga hid in Kenya, where he had built significant business interests and political allies.

Multiple attempts to catch him failed, often due to tips from Kenyan officials or police officers. In January 2003, a Kenyan freelance journalist, William Munuhe, was found fatally shot in his home in a Nairobi suburb. According to investigators and local reports, Munuhe was working with the FBI in a sting operation to capture Mr. Kabuga.

In April 1998, U.N. tribunal investigators linked Mr. Kabuga to a house owned by the nephew of Daniel arap Moi, then the president of Kenya. Later that year, he was spotted in Southeast Asia, according to a 1999 U.N. report on illicit arms transfers.

Capture and Aftermath

In late 1999, approximately $2.5 million in bank accounts held by Mr. Kabuga in France, Belgium, and Switzerland were frozen after the international criminal tribunal targeted his financial resources. A decade later, Stephen Rapp, then U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes, accused senior Kenyan officials of harboring Mr. Kabuga and demanded his arrest.

At the time, Mr. Kabuga’s capture was seen as vital to unifying Rwanda, a deeply divided nation still grappling with its past. Analysts viewed him as one of the few people who knew how the genocide was orchestrated.

“A team led by U.N. war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz eventually tracked him to France in 2020,” Brammertz told the BBC. “The French authorities located the apartment in which he was hiding, which led to the operation.” Mr. Kabuga was able to hide for so long because of “the complicity of his children,” he added.

His wife died in 2017 in Belgium. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

“Mr. Kabuga’s apprehension sends a powerful message that those who are alleged to have committed such crimes cannot evade justice and will eventually be held accountable, even more than a quarter of a century later,” a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement after the fugitive’s capture.