Faith Nyasuguta
One of the most wanted suspects in Rwanda’s genocide, a man suspected of orchestrating the killing of more than 2,000 people, has been arrested in South Africa after 22 years on the run, a special tribunal set up by the United Nations said Thursday.
Fulgence Kayishema, according to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), was arrested on Wednesday in Paarl, a small town in a wine-making region about 30 miles east of Cape Town.
He is said to have been captured in a collaborative operation by the tribunal’s fugitive tracking team and South African authorities, the tribunal said.
Over 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda’s genocide, which took place over the course of three months in 1994 when ethnic Hutus turned on the minority Tutsis, slaughtering them and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them.
Kayishema, who is believed to be in his early 60s, had assumed a false identity and gone by the name Donatien Nibashumba, South African police said.
The United States had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Kayishema’s arrest through its Rewards for Justice program.
The U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda indicted Kayishema in 2001 and charged him with complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity for killings and other crimes. He had been at large since 2001, the tribunal said.
The tribunal detailed that he is alleged to have organized the killings of more than 2,000 ethnic Tutsi refugees — men, women, and children — at a Catholic church during the genocide.
“Fulgence Kayishema was a fugitive for more than 20 years. His arrest ensures that he will finally face justice for his alleged crimes,” IRMCT chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in a statement.
The tribunal says it has now tracked down five suspects wanted in the Rwandan genocide since 2020. It is still searching for three more fugitives, it said.
South African police said he would appear in a courtroom in Cape Town on Friday before likely being extradited to Rwanda.
