By Jean-Pierre A.
On Wednesday, the French court referred a former Hutu lieutenant-colonel, in the former Rwandan Armed Forces, Cyprien Kayumba, to the Special Assize Court in Paris. He is suspected of supplying weapons used to exterminate Tutsis during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The 70-year-old, who has always maintained that he was unaware that these weapons were intended for the massacres, will therefore stand trial, on a date yet to be determined, for complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity, reported TV5, a French media outlet.
Between April and July 1994, the genocide claimed more than 1,000,000 lives, according to the UN, with Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed by the Rwandan Armed Forces and the extremist Hutu Interahamwe militias.
According to TV5, In January 2025, Mr Kayumba had been acquitted by an investigating judge from the crimes against humanity division of the Paris court. However, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), which had sought his prosecution, had lodged an appeal.
The Investigating Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal thus ruled in favour of the PNAT, overturning the dismissal order, as requested by the Advocate General in his closing speech of 14 January, which AFP was able to consult.
It also ordered Mr Kayumba to be placed under judicial supervision, including a ban on leaving the country.
Cyprien Kayumba, 71, of Hutu origin, spent his entire career in the Rwandan army. At the time of the genocide, he was director of financial services within the Ministry of Defence,
and responsible for ordering and delivering the weapons.
On the evening of the attack on the plane carrying Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana – considered the trigger for the genocide on 6 April 1994 – he took part in the crisis meeting of the General Staff, attended by Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, regarded as the ‘mastermind of the genocide’, further reported TV5.
On 19 April 1994, he was sent abroad, notably to France, to try to secure the fulfilment of arms contracts that had already been signed but were on hold.
During the investigation, Kayumba claimed that he was carrying out the orders of the Minister of Defence, that he was not responsible for the distribution of weapons, and that he was unaware that they might end up in the hands of Interahamwe militiamen or that the army itself was participating in the massacres – a position the Prosecutor General described as “particularly implausible”.
Speaking to AFP, Alain Gauthier, president of the civil parties for Rwanda (CPCR), which filed the initial complaint against Mr Kayumba, expressed his “great satisfaction”.
At this stage, eight Rwandans have been convicted in France for their role in the genocide, according to Mr Gauthier, who decried ‘the slowness of justice’.
On Wednesday, the investigating chamber also adjourned its decision regarding the former First Lady, Agathe Habyarimana, 83, until 6 May. Last August, she was cleared of charges by two investigating judges, who ruled that there was “insufficient evidence (…) that she could have been an accomplice to acts of genocide” or “could have participated in a conspiracy to commit genocide”.
The Pnat, which is calling for him to be charged, immediately lodged an appeal, followed by four organisations acting as civil parties.
