The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals on Tuesday, November 14, confirmed the death of Aloys Ndimbati, one of the main fugitives wanted for their role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The former mayor of Gisovu commune in Kibuye prefecture and a member of former President Juvenal Habyarimana’s party, MRND, was first indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in November 1995.

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He was charged with seven counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape, and persecution.

According to a statement by the UN prosecutor’s office, in July 1994, Ndimbati and his family fled Rwanda for DR Congo (then-Zaire), where they resided in Kashusha camp. He later traveled with some family members to Kisangani. In, or around, June 1997, Ndimbati returned to Rwanda by means of a UNHCR repatriation flight from Kisangani to Kanombe.

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"Following a comprehensive and challenging investigation, the [Office of the Prosecutor] was able to conclude that Ndimbati died by around the end of June 1997 in the area of the current Gatore Sector, Kirehe District, Eastern Province, Rwanda,” the statement reads.

"While the exact circumstances of his death have not been determined owing to the confusion and absence of order at the time, the evidence gathered by the [Office of the Prosecutor] demonstrates that Ndimbati did not leave the Gatore area, and that he was never seen or heard from again.”

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The statement notes that no reliable and corroborated evidence of him being alive after that time has been identified.

Unable to cause further harm

"Ndimbati’s death at this approximate time and place was independently confirmed by the National Public Prosecution Authority of Rwanda following its own investigation.”

While the survivors and victims of Ndimbati’s crimes will not see him prosecuted and punished, the mechanism said, "this result may help bring some closure in the knowledge that Ndimbati is not at large and he is unable to cause further harm to the Rwandan people.”

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Aloys Ndimbati’s crimes

It was reported that at the onset of the 1994 Genocide against the Tusti, Ndimbati traveled around Gisovu commune publicly calling for the elimination of Tutsi.

Ndimbati, together with other local leaders including the fugitive Charles Sikubwabo organized, between April and June 1994, attacks against Tutsi refugees in locations throughout Gisovu commune and the Bisesero area, the mechanism said.

According to the UN prosecutor’s office, Ndimbati was alleged to have personally organized and directed massacres and killings of thousands of Tutsi at locations including Bisesero hill, Kidashya hill, Muyira hill, Nyakavumu cave, Gitwe hill, Rwirambo hill, Byiniro hill and Kazirandimwe hill.

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There are now only two outstanding ICTR fugitives: Charles Sikubwabo and Charles Ryandikayo.

Between May 2020 and today, the OTP’s Fugitive Tracking Team has arrested two fugitives, Félicien Kabuga and Fulgence Kayishema, and confirmed the deaths of another four fugitives, Augustin Bizimana, Protais Mpiranya, Phénéas Munyarugarama and, lately, Ndimbati.

Mpiranya, a major in the former Rwandan army who commanded the Presidential Guard, and Munyarugarama, a lieutenant colonel who commanded the Gako Military Barracks, were confirmed dead in May 2022.