Félicien Kabuga, the alleged financier of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, has died in custody at a hospital in The Hague, according to a United Nations tribunal.
Kabuga, believed to have been over 90 years old, died on Thursday while under the supervision of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, the U.N. body responsible for handling remaining genocide and war crimes cases linked to Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
The court announced it would conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.
Kabuga had been facing charges related to genocide, incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in helping orchestrate the 1994 massacre of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The businessman was accused of financing and supporting extremist Hutu militias known as the Interahamwe, which carried out mass killings during the 100-day genocide that left approximately 800,000 people dead.
Prosecutors also alleged Kabuga played a major role in funding and establishing the infamous RTLM radio station, which broadcast anti-Tutsi propaganda and allegedly encouraged violence by identifying targets for attackers.
The genocide began after the plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down near Kigali on April 6, 1994. Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi minority and launched a coordinated campaign of killings across the country.
Kabuga had close ties to Rwanda’s Hutu political elite, including family connections to former President Habyarimana.
After evading international authorities for more than two decades, Kabuga was arrested near Paris in May 2020 following years on the run.
His long-delayed trial finally opened in The Hague nearly three decades after the genocide, but proceedings were suspended in 2023 after judges ruled that he was suffering from severe dementia and was medically unfit to stand trial.
Since then, Kabuga had remained in legal limbo at a United Nations detention facility after no country agreed to accept him for relocation. Rwanda had offered to take him back, but Kabuga opposed returning, citing fears of mistreatment.
Reactions to his death have been mixed among genocide survivors and legal observers.
Some survivors expressed frustration that justice was never fully delivered before his death, while his defense lawyer argued that continued detention served no judicial purpose once courts declared him unfit for trial.
Kabuga’s death closes a major chapter in the international pursuit of accountability for the Rwandan genocide, one of the deadliest atrocities of the 20th century.