Paul Kagame

Following the M23 offensive that captured Goma and other territories in 2025, the United States sanctioned the Rwanda Defence Force and senior military officials in March 2026, stating that the movement's gains would not have been possible without Rwandan support. A US-backed peace agreement provided for the withdrawal of Rwandan forces alongside the dismantling of the FDLR.

Attribution

Political responsibility

Victoire Ingabire was arrested again in 2025 and prosecuted for offences relating in particular to incitement and organising activities considered to target the authorities. Human rights organisations condemned arbitrary detention and a renewed use of the justice system against an opposition figure.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Over several years, Human Rights Watch documented arrests, disappearances, suspicious deaths and restrictions targeting opponents, journalists and activists. Ahead of the 2024 elections, the organisation considered that this climate had severely reduced the ability of an independent opposition to operate.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

UN experts and international investigations attributed material, operational and military support for M23 in eastern DRC to Rwanda, as well as the direct presence of Rwandan soldiers. The movement captured extensive territory and was accused of serious abuses.

Attribution

Political responsibility

Paul Rusesabagina, a critic of Kagame and a figure associated with the film Hotel Rwanda, was lured onto a private flight and subsequently arrested in Rwanda. He was sentenced in 2021 to 25 years in prison in a terrorism case; the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considered his deprivation of liberty arbitrary and criticised the circumstances of his transfer and trial.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Political responsibility

Person targeted by the proceedings

Paul Rusesabagina

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

The Pegasus Project and Amnesty International identified Rwandan numbers and relatives of opposition figures among potential targets and documented the infection of the phone belonging to Carine Kanimba, Paul Rusesabagina's daughter. Media investigations identified Rwanda as a potential client.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Diane Rwigara was prevented from standing in the 2017 presidential election after some of her signatures were invalidated, then arrested alongside members of her family and prosecuted for offences including incitement to insurrection and forgery. She was acquitted in December 2018.

Legal status — source text

Acquitted / conviction overturned

Person targeted by the proceedings

Diane Rwigara

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Police used live ammunition during demonstrations by Congolese refugees protesting against reductions in food rations. Human Rights Watch documented at least 12 deaths, while the authorities reported a lower death toll and maintained that force had been used in response to violence by protesters.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

A constitutional reform approved by referendum in 2015 changed presidential term limits and allowed Kagame to stand again in 2017 and potentially remain in power well beyond the deadline provided for under the previous Constitution.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Former general Kayumba Nyamwasa, who had become an opposition figure, survived an assassination attempt in South Africa in 2010 and further incidents afterwards. Following a raid on his residence in 2014, Pretoria expelled Rwandan diplomats suspected of involvement, worsening a crisis between the two countries.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Patrick Karegeya, a former Rwandan intelligence chief who had become an opposition figure, was found strangled in a Johannesburg hotel. Opposition figures accused Kigali; Kagame subsequently made remarks suggesting that those who betray their country suffer the consequences, fuelling the controversy.

Attribution

Political responsibility

Opposition figure Victoire Ingabire was arrested after returning to Rwanda in 2010 and subsequently convicted of offences relating in particular to conspiracy against the authorities and genocide ideology. Human rights organisations condemned her trial as politically motivated and marred by procedural problems.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Kagame won the 2010 presidential election with 93.8% of the vote in a context in which Human Rights Watch documented the absence of meaningful competition, restrictions on opposition parties and the media, and violence targeting critics.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Rwanda again deployed forces in Congo during the Second Congo War, officially to fight armed Hutu groups responsible for the genocide and protect its security. The intervention was also associated with serious violations of humanitarian law and controversies over the exploitation of Congolese resources.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Rwanda, whose principal military and political leader was Kagame, participated in the invasion of Zaire in 1996. The UN Mapping Report documented extremely serious attacks against Hutu refugees and civilians, potentially constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity depending on the facts; it also indicated that certain elements could, if proven before a court, raise the question of genocide.

State of the evidence

Documented

During the dismantling of the Kibeho displaced persons camp in April 1995, soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Army opened fire and killed large numbers of people. Estimates of the death toll varied considerably; Human Rights Watch reported figures ranging from several hundred to approximately two thousand or more, depending on contemporary sources.

State of the evidence

Disputed

The Rwandan Patriotic Front, led militarily by Paul Kagame, ended the 1994 genocide, but its own troops also committed massacres and executions of civilians. Human Rights Watch concluded that the abuses were sufficiently systematic and widespread that senior commanders should have known about them, and estimated that tens of thousands of civilians had been killed by the RPF, while emphasising that these crimes were neither of the same nature nor of the same scale as the genocide against the Tutsi.

State of the evidence

Documented