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Rwandan genocide suspect Kabuga, 93, dies in custody

By Thomson Reuters May 16, 2026 | 12:53 PM

(Corrects suspect’s first name in paragraph 1)

THE HAGUE, May 16 (Reuters) – Felicien Kabuga, a suspect in the 1994 ​Rwanda genocide, has died in ‌custody, a U.N. court said on Saturday. He was 93.

Kabuga was arrested in France in 2020 after more than two decades on ‌the ​run and extradited to ⁠The Hague. He ⁠was later ruled unfit to stand trial because of dementia and was also deemed too ill to return to ​Rwanda.

With no country willing to accept him, Kabuga remained in the U.N. ⁠detention centre in ⁠The Hague. The court said ​it had ordered an inquiry into the ​circumstances of his death.

The former businessman and ‌radio station owner was among the last fugitives sought over the genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed more ⁠than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days.

Prosecutors accused Kabuga of promoting hate speech through ⁠his ‌broadcaster Radio Television Libre des ⁠Mille Collines and of helping ​arm ‌ethnic Hutu militias.

The court that ​announced his ⁠death, the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, oversees remaining cases from the former U.N. tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling. Editing by ​Mark Potter)