Rwanda: Genocide Fugitive Callixte Mbarushimana Confirmed Dead in France

What the report says

Callixte Mbarushimana, a former UNDP employee and senior figure in the FDLR, has died in France at age 63, according to The New Times, which cited sources close to the case. The report says he died on October 4 and that burial was set for October 9. Mbarushimana had lived in France for years with refugee status and had remained a subject of legal scrutiny over alleged links to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The New Times said French authorities had placed him under judicial examination in 2010 over allegations of crimes against humanity and complicity in such crimes. A separate UN inquiry in 2001 linked him to the deaths of 32 people, including Tutsi colleagues at UNDP in Kigali, according to the article. It also said he was accused of using his UNDP position during the genocide to help facilitate attacks and killings.

The case had moved through several stages in France. The article notes that a judge dismissed the French investigation in October 2024, but an appeal court later ordered it reopened in May 2025 after finding some evidence had not been fully examined. The report also recalls that the ICC pursued a separate case against Mbarushimana over alleged FDLR crimes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, but charges were not confirmed in 2011 and the appeal was upheld in 2012.

For Rwanda, his death closes a long-running and politically sensitive case involving accountability for genocide-era crimes and the postwar legacy of the FDLR. The information above is based on The New Times’ report as distributed by AllAfrica.