Callixte Mbarushimana, a former United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) employee and senior figure in the FDLR, died in France at the age of 63. Mbarushimana, who was accused of betraying his colleagues during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, died on October 4, sources told The New Times. His burial is scheduled for Friday, October 9. He died while a French investigation into his alleged role in the Genocide was still ongoing. Mbarushimana, who had political refugee status in France for about two decades, was placed under judicial examination in France in 2010 over allegations of crimes against humanity and complicity in such crimes. ALSO READ: Rwanda to pursue Mbarushimana He was accused of involvement in the killing of Tutsi and of using his position at the UNDP during the Genocide to facilitate attacks and killings. In 2001, a UN investigation linked Mbarushimana to the deaths of 32 people, including Tutsi colleagues at the UNDP in Kigali. At UNDP, he worked as an IT specialist and later as a computer technician. One case in which Mbarushimana is implicated is the murder of a UNDP worker named Florence who was President Paul Kagame's cousin. She was killed at her home in Kigali. As Rwanda marked Kwibuka 30, on April 7, 2024, Kagame opened up about Florence's despair, his attempt to have her rescued and her eventual murder on May 16, 1994. Kagame noted that Mbarushimana continued to work at UNDP for years after the Genocide and lived as a free man in France. VIDEO: Our people will never be left for dead again - President Kagame The French case was dismissed by an investigating judge in October 2024. However, The Collectif des parties civiles pour le Rwanda(CPCR), which had filed a complaint that contributed to the French investigation, appealed the dismissal. On May 21, 2025, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered the investigation to be reopened, after concluding that aspects of the evidence had not been fully examined. ALSO READ: Genocide: France reopens Callixte Mbarushimana case The International Criminal Court (ICC) also prosecuted Mbarushimana separately over alleged crimes committed by the FDLR in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He was arrested in Paris in October 2010 and transferred to the ICC in The Hague in January 2011. ICC judges declined to confirm the charges against him in December 2011, finding that prosecutors had not presented sufficient evidence of his individual contribution to the alleged crimes. The ICC Appeals Chamber upheld that decision in May 2012. He returned to France where he continued to live as a free man. Mbarushimana was a former Executive Secretary of the DR Congo-backed FDLR militia, which was formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the Genocide.
