Rwanda: Chief Justice - Bisesero Genocide Case Will Continue Despite French Ruling

What the report says

Rwanda’s Chief Justice Domitille Mukantaganzwa said the country will continue pressing the Bisesero genocide case despite France’s highest court dismissing the complaint. Speaking in Kigali on Friday, September 11, she said Rwanda was unhappy with the ruling and would keep pursuing the matter through other channels, including civil society groups supporting genocide survivors.

According to the report published by The New Times and distributed by AllAfrica, France’s Court of Cassation on September 9 upheld the dismissal of an investigation into possible complicity by French soldiers during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The case, filed in 2005 by six survivors and rights groups including Survie, Ibuka, FIDH, LDH and Licra, focused on events at Bisesero in western Rwanda between June 27 and 30, 1994, when survivors say French troops under Operation Turquoise failed to intervene in time.

The French investigation was halted in 2018, and later rulings in 2023 and 2024 had already supported dismissal. The court said there was no proof the soldiers intended to help crimes against Tutsi civilians and argued that any delay in rescue reflected uncertainty about the situation and the limits of their orders and information.

Ibuka also said it was disappointed and would look for other ways to pursue accountability. The case remains significant because it touches on one of the most sensitive questions in post-genocide justice: the role of foreign forces present in Rwanda during the killings.