Rwanda genocide suspect Félicien Kabuga arrested in France

One of the most wanted suspects in the Rwandan genocide Félicien Kabuga has been arrested on Saturday near Paris, the French justice ministry has announced.

Mr Kabuga was detained by gendarmes in Asnières-Sur-Seine, where he had been living under a false identity.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has charged the 84-year-old with genocide and crimes against humanity.

He is alleged to have been the main financier of the ethnic Hutu extremists who slaughtered 800,000 people in 1994.

They were targeting members of the minority Tutsi community, as well as their political opponents.

The United States had offered a reward of $5m (£4.1m) for information leading to Mr Kabuga’s arrest.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on several occasions insisted that Kabuga is hiding in Kenya, claims that the Government denied.

Before the Rwanda genocide, Kabuga was heavily involved in the founding and bankrolling of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) as well as Kangura magazine.

In 1993, at an RTLM fundraising meeting organised by the MRND, Felicien Kabuga allegedly publicly defined the purpose of RTLM as the defence of Hutu Power.

In September 1995, before he was named as a suspected planner of the genocide, Kabuga is said to have registered and run a business named ‘Nshikabem Agency’ in Nairobi, operating out of the Kilimani area.

In a speech given on 28 August 2006 during his visit to Kenya, then US Senator Barack Obama accused Kenya of “allowing him to purchase safe haven.”

The Kenyan government denied these allegations and described Obama’s allegation regarding Kabuga as “an insult to the people of this country.”