As the 21 suspects accused of committing terror acts in south-western Rwanda made their way to the Supreme Court chambers on the morning of Wednesday, February 17, an elderly, stout woman emerged from the group.
She is the only woman among the group accused of conspiring, through FLN, a militia outfit under MRCD, to launch attacks in different districts in the southwest of Rwanda.
At least nine people – whose relatives were in court to attend the trial – were killed. Others were injured, while others lost their property during the different attacks that occurred between 2018 and 2019.
The woman is Angeline Mukandutiye who returned to Rwanda in 2019 among a group of people that were sent back home following an offensive by DR Congo armed forces against militia groups.
She faces one charge of being a member of a terrorist group.
Mukandutiye is already serving a sentence rendered by a Gacaca court case that was conducted in absentia.
She had fled to DR Congo when the Genocide against the Tutsi was stopped and she emerged as a key leader within the ranks of MRCD-FLN of Paul Rusesabagina, following investigations that were conducted in the case.
Who is Mukandutiye?
The name Angeline Mukandutiye was familiar during the Genocide against the Tutsi, especially in Kigali, where she worked as the inspector of schools within Nyarugenge District.
She was a key figure in the killings that occurred in different parts of Kigali, especially around Sainte-Famille Catholic Church, where thousands of Tutsi lost their lives.
Born in January 1951 in Giciye Commune, former Gisenyi Prefecture, Mukandutiye was married to Jean Sahunkuye, a relative of former President Juvénal Habyarimana.
Before the Genocide, sources say that she gave the impression of a neutral woman, having good relationships with everybody.
However, all this changed when her relative, Colonel Gervais Rwendeye was killed in an ambush laid by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1990.
"She brought out her true colors and began targeting Pierre Bushishi, the conseiller of Rugenge Sector, just because he originated from Gitarama, the Nduga region which, according to the then ruling power, was a prefecture of ‘accomplices of Inkotanyi’,” Gervais Dusabemungu, a former colleague of Mukandutiye at the Prefecture de la Ville de Kigali (PVK), told The New Times in a previous interview.
Dusebamungu said that shortly before the Genocide, Mukandutiye used her clout to have her close friend and fellow extremist Odette Nyirabegenzi, appointed as the head of Rugenge Sector in Nyarugenge, replacing a one Bushishi who was considered moderate.
Role in MRCD-FLN
It is believed that after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Mukandutiye fled to the DR Congo with her husband when the genodical government was toppled in July 1994.
However, in the neighboring country, the 70-year-old woman allegedly did not stop her unlawful acts.
Former members of militia groups say that Mukandutiye was a ‘commissioner” in FLN and was recently accused of recruiting young girls into the militia force.
After many years of hiding, in December 2019, Mukandutiye came along with hundreds of other dependents of anti-Rwanda militia who were repatriated from DR Congo.
She was among the returnees taken to Nyarushishi Transit Centre and a few days later, she was identified by a member of public after she appeared on television while giving an interview.
She was immediately sent to jail to complete her life sentence by a Gacaca.