Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa (born 1962) is a Rwandan former Lieutenant general who formerly was the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army from 1998 to 2002. He was also head of Rwandan intelligence from 1998 to 2002 [1] and served as Rwanda's ambassador to India between 2004 and 2010. Nyamwasa has been an opposition leader in exile since as part of the Rwanda National Congress.
A Tutsi born in Uganda Nyamwasa grew up in Rubabo, Rukungiri in western Uganda. He was educated at St. Paul Seminary, Rushoroza in Kabale for O- Levels before joining St. Henry’s College Kitovu for A-Level. He later earned a law degree in Makerere University. He later joined Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army in January 1986 and served as a Ugandan military officer before 1990. With Paul Kagame, [2] he contributed to the creation of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the late 1980s and was considered a central figure in the military during the RPF campaign and the post genocidal period, when he oversaw anti-insurgency campaigns in the country's north-west. [3]
A 2006 French inquiry with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda accused Nyamwasa, Kagame and four other officials of organizing the shooting down the plane of then Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana. [4] The event is cited as the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide. [4] Nyamwasa has also been accused by Spain of ordering the killing of three Spanish NGO workers and a Canadian priest. [5] The group allegedly were targeted because they had evidence of the RPF killing Hutu civilians. [5]
Nyamwasa may have been falling out with Kagame as early as 1998. Historian Gérard Prunier states that he and others may have been envious of the foreign aide money being siphoned off by Kagame and friends around this time. An RPF invasion of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo was seen as a way for all to get "a share of the spoils". [6]
Nyamwasa was made Rwandan ambassador to India in 2004, possibly in an attempt by Kagame to keep a political rival far away from the country. [2] [6] When he returned to Rwanda to bury his mother, he was summoned by military officials who are alleged to demand "he write Kagame an apology for a list of perceived infractions." [2] In response, Nywamwasa fled to South Africa on 28 February 2010 and sought exile there. [1]
In South Africa, Nyamwasa partnered with former RPF official Gerald Gahima and Theogene Rudasingwa to create the opposition Rwanda National Congress. [2] The RNC has joined with a coalition of Tutsi and Hutu who oppose President Kagame. [2]
The Rwandan government later stated that he may have been working with Colonel Patrick Karegeya, another former intelligence head who was living in exile in South Africa. [1] Karegeya was found murdered in a Johannesburg hotel on December 31, 2013. The RNC accuse agents of President Kagame of carrying out the assassination. [2] The day after Karageya's assassination, President Kagame told a rally “Whoever betrays the country will pay the price, I assure you...Whoever it is, it is a matter of time.” [7]
In June 2010, Brigadier General Jean Bosco Kazura, head of the Rwandese Association Football Federation, traveled to South Africa to see the World Cup and allegedly contacted Nyamwasa. Kazura was recalled and placed under arrest, although an army spokesman said this was purely because he had failed to obtain permission to travel. [8]
Nyamwasa was shot in the stomach in Johannesburg, South Africa on 19 June 2010. [9] Several people arrested after the shooting were found to be Rwandan. Kayumba was recorded to have said that Kagame wants him dead because he challenges his dictatorial views. [1] Nyamwasa's wife stated that the attack was politically motivated. Al-Jazeera reported that "Rosette said they were in the parking lot of their home and a man came to the side of the car with a pistol and shot at her husband who managed to get out of the car and then there was a scuffle. The driver of the car then chased the assailant away."
Four men were convicted for the attempt on Nyamwasa's life. [10] Rwandan businessman Pascal Kanyandekwe was accused by a South African magistrate of masterminding the plot, but was not brought to trial. [11] Kanyandekwe was said to have tried to bribe a police officer with $1 million to let him off. [12]
Jean-Léonard Rugambage, a Rwandan journalist who investigated the attempt on Nyamwasa's life, was murdered a few days later in Kigali. [13] [14]
Nyamwasa is accused by Rwandan authorities of involvement in acts of terrorism, including three grenade attacks in Kigali on 19 February 2010, [9] but was not arrested in South Africa due to a lack of evidence and extradition treaties between the two countries. In 2011, the Military High Court in Kigali condemned him and other RNC founders for terrorist acts, threat to state security and public order. [15] He was stripped of his military rank, removed from the army and sentenced to 24 years in prison. All four men were tried in absentia. [15]
A December 2018 report from the United Nations accuses Nyamwasa of traveling back and forth from South Africa and the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo recruiting soldiers to fight Rwanda. [16] His alleged group, called P5 (Platform Five), is said to be under the umbrella of the opposition group in exile Rwanda National Congress. [16] P5 is alleged to receive financial support from Burundi and Uganda, [17] and additional recruits from South Africa and Tanzania. [18]
He was married to Rosette Nyamwasa. [19]
Juvénal Habyarimana was a politician and military officer who served as the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until his assassination in 1994. He was nicknamed Kinani, a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".
Paul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who is the fourth and current president of Rwanda since 2000. He previously served as a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel armed force which invaded Rwanda in 1990. The RPF was one of the parties of the conflict during the Rwandan Civil War and the armed force which ended the Rwandan genocide. He was considered Rwanda's de facto leader when he served as Vice President and Minister of Defence under President Pasteur Bizimungu from 1994 to 2000 after which the vice-presidential post was abolished.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 872 on 5 October 1993. It was intended to assist in the implementation of the Arusha Accords, signed on 4 August 1993, which was meant to end the Rwandan Civil War. The mission lasted from October 1993 to March 1996. Its activities were meant to aid the peace process between the Hutu-dominated Rwandese government and the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The UNAMIR has received much attention for its role in failing, due to the limitations of its rules of engagement, to prevent the Rwandan genocide and outbreak of fighting. Its mandate extended past the RPF overthrow of the government and into the Great Lakes refugee crisis. The mission is thus regarded as a major failure.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front is the ruling political party in Rwanda. Led by President Paul Kagame, the party has governed the country since its armed wing defeated government forces, winning the Rwandan Civil War in 1994.
The Interahamwe is a Hutu paramilitary organization active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The Interahamwe was formed around 1990 as the youth wing of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development, the then-ruling party of Rwanda, and enjoyed the backing of the Hutu Power government. The Interahamwe, led by Robert Kajuga, were the main perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, during which an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi, Twa, and moderate Hutus were killed from April to July 1994, and the term "Interahamwe" was widened to mean any civilian militias or bands killing Tutsi.
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi deaths.
The failure of the international community to effectively respond to the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has been the subject of significant criticism. During a period of around 100 days, between 7 April and 15 July, an estimated 500,000-1,100,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsi and moderate Hutu, were murdered by Interahamwe militias.
The Rwanda Defence Force is the military of the Republic of Rwanda. The country's armed forces were originally known as the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), but following the Rwandan Civil War of 1990–1994 and the Rwandan genocide of 1994 against the Tutsi, the victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front (Inkotanyi) created a new organization and named it the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). Later, it was renamed to its current name.
Paul Rusesabagina is a Rwandan human rights activist. He worked as the manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali, during a period in which it housed 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees fleeing the Interahamwe militia during the Rwandan genocide. None of these refugees were hurt or killed during the attacks.
The Rwandan Civil War was a large-scale civil war in Rwanda which was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces, representing the country's government, and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from 1 October 1990 to 18 July 1994. The war arose from the long-running dispute between the Hutu and Tutsi groups within the Rwandan population. A 1959–1962 revolution had replaced the Tutsi monarchy with a Hutu-led republic, forcing more than 336,000 Tutsi to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. A group of these refugees in Uganda founded the RPF which, under the leadership of Fred Rwigyema and Paul Kagame, became a battle-ready army by the late 1980s.
The Great Lakes refugee crisis is the common name for the situation beginning with the exodus in April 1994 of over two million Rwandans to neighboring countries of the Great Lakes region of Africa in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Many of the refugees were Hutu fleeing the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which had gained control of the country at the end of the genocide. However, the humanitarian relief effort was vastly compromised by the presence among the refugees of many of the Interahamwe and government officials who carried out the genocide, who used the refugee camps as bases to launch attacks against the new government led by Paul Kagame. The camps in Zaire became particularly politicized and militarized. The knowledge that humanitarian aid was being diverted to further the aims of the genocidaires led many humanitarian organizations to withdraw their assistance. The conflict escalated until the start of the First Congo War in 1996, when RPF-supported rebels invaded Zaire and sought to repatriate the refugees.
Fred Gisa Rwigyema was a Rwandan politician and military officer. He was the founder of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a political and military force formed by Rwandan Tutsi exile descendants of those forced to leave the country after the 1959 Hutu Revolution.
The Banyarwanda (Kinyarwanda: Abanyarwanda, Umunyarwanda are a Bantu ethnolinguistic supraethnicity that comprises the dominant ethnic groups of Rwanda, namely the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa among others. The Banyarwanda are also minorities in neighboring Burundi, DR Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya.
Human rights in Rwanda have been violated on a grand scale. The greatest violation is the Rwandan genocide of Tutsi in 1994. The post-genocide government is also responsible for grave violations of human rights.
Presidential elections were held in Rwanda on 9 August 2010, the second since the Rwandan Civil War. Incumbent President Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was re-elected for a second seven-year term with 93% of the vote.
Patrick Karegeya was a head of intelligence in Rwanda. He was a member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) group that took power in Rwanda following the genocide and civil war. After becoming a critic of RPF leader Paul Kagame, he was stripped of his rank and jailed. Following a time in exile, he was assassinated in Johannesburg, South Africa on December 31, 2013.
Charles Muhire is a Rwandan air force officer who was Chief of Staff of the Air Force before being arrested in April 2010.
The Rwanda National Congress (RNC) is Rwandan opposition group in exile, established in the United States on 12 December 2010. Prominent founders included Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, Gerald Gahima, and Patrick Karegeya. Karegeya was murdered on 31 December 2013. Rudasingwa and Gahima have since left the organization.
Aloisea Inyumba was a Rwandan politician, who was the country's Minister for Gender and Family Promotion and as executive secretary of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission.
Liberation Day is a public holiday in Rwanda which is celebrated on 4 July. It commemorates the defeat of the previous Habyarimana regime and the Rwandan Armed Forces by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the Rwandan Civil War, thus ending the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. On 4 July 1994, the RPF secured the capital of Kigali while the end of the war only became official on 18 July with the liberation of the north-west territories. Liberation Day takes place a week after Independence Day, although it is more of a celebration rather than the national mourning period for the Rwandan Revolution on Independence Day.
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