Callixte Mbarushimana, a former executive secretary of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), was reported dead while a French investigation into allegations linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi remained unresolved.
Mbarushimana was reported to have died in France, where he had lived for years. No final judicial ruling had been reached in the French case at the time.
His name had been associated with the FDLR for years. United Nations Security Council records identified him as the group’s executive secretary and vice-president of its military high command. He was placed on the UN sanctions list in 2009 over his leadership role and for obstructing the disarmament and voluntary repatriation of combatants.
The same UN records show that he later returned to the FDLR leadership and was re-elected executive secretary in 2014.
Mbarushimana also faced proceedings before the International Criminal Court over crimes allegedly committed by FDLR forces in North and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009.
ICC records show that prosecutors brought allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes against him. The charges were not confirmed and the case never proceeded to trial.
The Pre-Trial Chamber found that the evidence presented was insufficient to establish substantial grounds to believe that Mbarushimana could be held criminally responsible under the provision relied upon by prosecutors.
He was released from ICC custody in December 2011. The prosecution’s appeal was later dismissed and the ICC lists the case as closed unless new evidence is submitted.
Separate from the ICC proceedings, Mbarushimana had also been under investigation in France over suspected crimes committed during the Genocide against the Tutsi.
Before his involvement with the FDLR, he had worked as an information technology specialist with the United Nations Development Programme in Kigali. His conduct during the Genocide later became the subject of allegations concerning crimes against Tutsi colleagues and other civilians.
French investigators examined those allegations for years. The case was initially closed in 2024 after investigating judges found insufficient evidence to proceed, but that decision was challenged.
The Paris Court of Appeal overturned the decision and ordered the investigation reopened in May 2025. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals later confirmed that the renewed investigation concerned suspected crimes committed in Kigali during the Genocide.
The Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda, which had filed a complaint against Mbarushimana in 2008, also records the reopening of the judicial investigation.
Mbarushimana was never convicted in either the ICC proceedings concerning eastern DRC or the French investigation concerning allegations from the Genocide.
His reported death therefore came while the French judicial process was still open and before that case had reached a final determination.
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