How did the hunt for one of Africa’s most-wanted men end in Paris

But this week Félicien Kabuga appeared in court after being arrested in a dawn raid on an apartment in a Parisian suburb by French police officers dressed in black combat uniforms. Once one of Rwanda’s richest men, in 1994 Mr Kabuga part-owned Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines, the broadcaster whose radio transmissions, prosecutors allege, co-ordinated the government-backed Hutu killing squads attacking the minority Tutsi population during 100 bloody days. Mr Kabuga allegedly personally called for the extermination of ethnic Tutsis duringmeetings in the months prior to the genocide and also helped to finance the killing, according to the charges against him. Col Eric Emeraux British officers had noticed that one of Mr Kabuga’s adult children travelled regularly from the UK to France and Belgium. “You had [Osama] Bin Laden, who is now dead . . . And then there was Félicien Kabuga, who was number two.” Still his sudden arrest, after many Rwandans had given up hope of justice, has also raised questions about how he evaded the authorities for so many years, particularly living in one of Europe’s biggest cities. “I wonder how he can have been in France for this long without being detected,” said Kayumba Nyamwasa a Tutsi former Rwandan spy chief turned opposition leader, who now lives in exile in South Africa. Mr Nyamwasa served as chief of staff in the Rwandan army after the genocide and then ambassador to India, before breaking with President Paul Kagame in 2010. Rwanda has accused UN-backed French troops in the country of allowing soldiers and officers responsible for the genocide to escape during a humanitarian mission to protect civilians. In 2018, Louise Mushikiwabo, the former Rwandan foreign minister, was appointed to head the influential association of French-speaking countries, the International Organisation of La Francophonie, with the full backing of the Elysée Palace.

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