BY BALTAZAR NDUWAYEZU
The final resting place of Félicien Kabuga (91), one of the most prominent suspects in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, remains unknown almost ten days after his death was announced in The Hague, Netherlands.
Kabuga, a wealthy Rwandan businessman accused of financing and encouraging the genocide, died while in custody in The Hague, where he had been held by the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. The Mechanism announced his death on Saturday, 16 May 2026 and said an inquiry would be conducted into the circumstances surrounding his death in custody.
However, no public announcement has yet been made on whether Kabuga will be buried in Rwanda, Europe or elsewhere. The question of his burial is likely to be sensitive, given the gravity of the charges he faced, his long years as a fugitive and his family’s reported presence in different countries.
Kabuga was charged with genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, including persecution, extermination and murder, in connection with the 1994 genocide. He was President of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, commonly known as RTLM, which prosecutors said spread anti-Tutsi propaganda and incited killings during the genocide.
Prosecutors also alleged that Kabuga provided financial, logistical and material support to the Interahamwe militia, including support linked to weapons and ammunition. He denied the charges and was never convicted.
Kabuga was arrested in France on May 16, 2020 after more than two decades on the run. He was later transferred to The Hague, where his trial opened in September 2022. The proceedings were halted in 2023 after judges found him unfit to stand trial because of dementia and poor health.
At the time of his death, the Mechanism said Kabuga was awaiting provisional release to a state willing to accept him. No country had agreed to receive him, leaving him in the United Nations detention centre in The Hague.
Court-related records and public reports have identified his wife as Josephine Mukazitoni, who is reported to have died in Belgium in 2017. Some of his children were also reported to have been living in Europe, including Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, during the years investigators were tracking him. In 2020 French investigators monitored some of Kabuga’s children before locating him in a Paris suburb.
Kabuga’s death has closed one of the longest-running genocide cases without a final judgment.
For survivors, Kabuga’s passing means that one of the most wanted suspects of the 1994 genocide has died without facing a completed trial. For his family, however, questions remain over where and how he will be buried and whether his remains will be returned to Rwanda or laid to rest elsewhere.
