The convicts, all men were convicted of Genocide related crimes and had either completed their sentences or were acquitted.
According to a statement released on December 27, 2021, Niger’s Interior Ministry ordered them to leave the country within seven days.
The ex-convicts are Protais Zigiranyirazo, Francois Nzuwonemeye, Innocent Sagahutu, Alphonse Nteziryayo, Tharcisse Muvunyi, André Ntagerura, Anatole Nsengiyumva and Prosper Mugiraneza.
They are widely considered among the masterminds of the genocide.
After the conclusion of their cases, they remained in Arusha, Tanzania where the UN court was based.
Their expulsion by Niamey came after an inquiry by the Rwandan government to the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) seeking clarification about circumstances under which the eight were transferred to the West African country of Niger.
While addressing a UN Security Council meeting in New York in early December, Valentine Rugwabiza, Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said that her country had not been informed by either the MICT or the host nation about the transfer of the genocidaires in question.
She pointed out that there was evidence that some of these individuals, after their acquittal by the former ICTR, have been engaging in subversive activities that contributed to the insecurity and instability of the Great Lakes Region for the past few decades.
The eight men had for long been stuck in Arusha, the former seat of the ICTR, after many countries had refused to take them in, including those hosting their families.
Previously, Rwanda said they may come back home to Rwanda if they so wish.
The support was extended to beneficiaries during ‘Police Month’ organized annually to mark its anniversary.
The 2021 Police Month held under the theme “21 years of partnership in policing towards sustainable safety and better livelihood for the community,” was concluded on Tuesday 28th December 2021 where RNP handed over different projects to the disadvantaged beneficiaries across the country.
The projects include 30 houses for the disadvantaged families, 4,578 households lit with solar power system while 11 cooperatives in fishing, beekeeping, piggery and poultry were also given financial support.
RNP in partnership with City of Kigali also awarded a pick-up vehicle to Bumbogo Sector of Gasabo District for its outstanding efforts to raise awareness to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Others include 1,600 families across the country that were given medical insurance, 13 modern cattle spray races were also constructed in Nyagatare, Gatsibo and Kayonza; and four families in Gishari, Rwamagana District were given heifers.
In the Western Province, the official closing of the Police Month held in Rubavu was presided over by Governor Francois Habitegeko, who was accompanied by the Deputy IGP in charge of Administration and Personnel, Jeanne Chantal Ujeneza.
At least six cooperatives in fishing, hog farming and poultry in Rubavu were given a financial support of over Frw40 million. The cooperatives were formed by former smugglers and those who were formerly engaged in other illegal activities.
A total of 1379 households were also powered with solar energy in the Western region where seven families were also given houses.
Governor Habitegeko lauded the impact of Police Month in further transforming lives and crime prevention in the region.
“We continue to see the impact community policing and this is one of the many activities that the Police engages in to ensure progressive and crime-free communities,” said Governor Habitegeko.
He appealed to residents to fight against cross border crimes and work with Police and other security organs against any sort of insecurity.
DIGP Ujeneza said that the outreach activities strengthen beneficiaries’ efforts to improve the well-being of Rwandans as well as fighting criminality.
“Rwandans and beneficiaries in particular, are our first partners. This is an example that you can stop whatever illegal activities you are doing and engage in developmental acts. As beneficiaries, continue to mobilize others to refrain from criminal acts like smuggling and drug dealing,” DIGP Ujeneza said.
In City of Kigali, Mayor Pudence Rubingisa, while handing over the vehicle, said that the conclusion of the Police Month should not be perceived as the end of the fight against the pandemic and lawlessness.
Present was also DIGP in charge of Operations, Felix Namuhoranye.
“The Police Month brought innovative ideaa against Covid-19, fighting and preventing crimes while supporting community development. We thank our Police for these progressive foundations, which we should carry on even as Police Month comes to an end,” Mayor Rubingisa said.
Meanwhile, in the Northern Province, Governor Dancilla Nyirarugero, while addressing residents of Burera District, thanked RNP for the initiative and called upon citizens for joining their efforts in fighting criminal acts.
“The Police Month has offered basic necessities like shelter, medical insurance and strengthened cooperatives in this district, like in other parts of the country. These impact on socio-economic development and it is also a challenge of what you as the residents should be doing to fight whatever that can destroy such development activities,” Nyirarugero told the residents.
Five beekeeping cooperatives in the Nothern Province were given 150 beehives, including 40 in Burera District alone. 732 households were also lit with solar power system in the province.
In the Eastern Province, Governor CG Emmanuel K. Gasana said that the Police Month and the RNP community development engagements in such period of the pandemic, define the country’s governance system that focuses mainly on the wellbeing of the citizens.
RNP powered 1, 458 households with solar energy in the Eastern Province and 1000 residents given healthcare insurance.
“These outreach activities are invaluable… they strengthen the community policing initiatives and other networks the institution set to support the government development programmes. Such home-grown solutions are the foundation and national pillars to sustainable human security,” said CG Gasana.
In the Southern Province, the event was held in Muhanga District where Governor Alice Kayitesi handed over different projects and urged the residents to partner with the police and other security organs to ensure community safety.
“The partnership between the Police and people in the Southern Province continue to transform lives and today were witnessing another milestone towards sustainable security and development,” said Governor Kayitesi.
The national carrier has through a statement revealed that affected customers will be refunded.
“Affected passengers will be re-routed, refunded or allowed to change their tickets to a later date at no extra cost,” reads part of the statement.
Like other airlines, RwandAir has had to temporarily suspend flights to some destinations at different times during the challenging times of COVID-19, to prevent the spread of the virus.
Kagame made the remarks today as he delivered the State of the Nation Address.
It is usually delivered during the annual National Dialogue Council ‘Umushyikirano’ which was recently canceled for the second time.
The President said that the country managed challenges related to security, health and economy in 2021.
To protect Rwandans against emerging health threats, Kagame said that the country has so far vaccinated 80% of its population who received at least one dose of COVID-19.
He thanked all those who have been involved in the critical exercise, including partners who have provided vaccines and other support.
The Head of State revealed that Rwanda’s economy experienced strong growth which the country expected to sustain.
Among others, Kagame thanked farmers for their contribution to sufficient food reserves, urged recently elected local leaders on efficient service delivery and warned security threat architects noting that whoever intends to destabilize Rwandans’ security will be held accountable.
{{Full speech}}
We have come to the end of the second year of living with COVID-19 pandemic.
Our country has had to learn fast, and adjust to the new challenges of this health threat as it evolves,. However , we have made a good progress and the state of our nation remains strong.
I want to thank all Rwandans for your hard work, and commitment to the development and wellbeing of each other and of our country, particularly, during these challenging times.
This year, Rwanda has had to manage many challenges, including in the health, economic and security sectors.
One important way that we have sought to protect Rwandans, is through comprehensive nationwide vaccination against COVID-19.
So far, 80% of our population aged 12 years and above, have received at least one vaccine dose.
We thank all those who have been involved in this critical exercise, including our partners who have provided vaccines and other support.
Going forward, we must be more self-reliant, and better prepared for future shocks.
This is why we are partnering with the African Union and the European Union as well as other companies like BioNTech, to manufacture vaccines and other pharmaceuticals in Rwanda starting next year.
As a result of prudent decisions made this year, Rwanda’s economy experienced strong growth which we expected to sustain.
The Economic Recovery Fund, totalling Rwf100 billion Rwandan Francs so far has allowed the most affected businesses including the tourism, and hospitality sector to stay open, and keep Rwandans employed.
We have mobilized additional funds for the second phase of this program which will support existing investments, and new ones.
I want to take this opportunity to thank our tax payers, who continued to contribute to Rwanda’s economic development, despite the pandemic. COVID-19 has reinforced the linkage between technology and economic growth.
Rwanda’s early investments in digitization, have proven to be an asset preventing our society from being crippled by this pandemic and future ones.
We encourage all Rwandans, especially our young people, to continue to innovate and create solutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow.
After many disruptions, Rwandan schools reopened. And stayed opened for a significant part of this year.
Students were able to sit for national exams during the lockdown, and move on to the next phase of their education.
Local Government elections took place after being postponed.
We now expect a lot form the elected officials, the most important being service delivery to citizens
The agriculture sector continues to be key, contributing 25% to the national economy in 2021.
Rwanda remains food secure, with sufficient reserves.
I would like to thank our farmers for their resilience in these times , despite the many challenges in travel and gathering,
Rwanda was able to host important events this year, including the inaugural Basketball Africa League , amongst other meetings.
A significant factor in Rwanda’s continued economic progress, is our strong collaboration with partner institutions and countries , Regional and continental integration, remains at the forefront of our agenda.
We are strengthening existing bilateral ties, with countries in our region and beyond as well as exploring new, mutually beneficial areas of cooperation.
This includes partnerships to address security challenge, including in Central African Republic and Mozambique.
Rwanda is able to pursue these forms of cooperation because the security and stability of our country, is assured and remains a top priority,
Part of this, is ensuring that anyone who threatens the safety and security of Rwandans, is brought to justice and held accountable.
Let us continue working together, and build on what we have already achieved.
I wish you, and your loved ones, a peaceful, healthy and happy end of year.
His colleagues have said that Munyemana, hailing from Nyamagabe district, recently went to Nyanza district for a partial job and started feeling bellyaches as he returned to school.
Colleagues advised Munyemana to go for medical check-up but told them that he hoped to get well without medical attention.
In the morning of Saturday, he got critically ill that his colleagues rushed to bring a motorcycle to ride him to a nearby health facility but found him dead upon arrival.
The executive secretary of Gahini sector, Joseph Rukeribuga has told IGIHE that his body has been taken to Gahini Hospital for postmortem.
“His colleagues have told us that the deceased felt unwell the previous day and proposed to take him to a health facility but told them that he hoped to get well in the following morning. His sickness was not reported before. We were only informed about his demise,” he said.
Kagame sent best wishes for festive season via Twitter handle on Christmas Eve, 24th December 2021 and shared pictures with two dogs.
“My Family and I wish You All a Very Happy Festive Season! Got a good start to my own….!! Love them..,” he tweeted.
Rwandans are celebrating end of year festive season for the second time during COVID-19 pandemic.
As he officiated the swearing-in of the recently appointed Minister of Interior, Alfred Gasana on 13th December 2021, President Kagame highlighted that the country has made commendable progress in fighting Covid-19 pandemic including vaccinating a big number of its population and reducing positive cases.
He however stressed the need to strengthen preventive measures as the festive season began to unfold considering that fact that the pandemic has not yet been defeated. He said that the Ministry of Interior has a role to play as the country seeks to enhance response to the pandemic.
“When people meet in big numbers to socialize, they fail to respect the established preventive measures properly. The Ministry of Interior is also part of our lead institutions in fighting this pandemic, working together with the Ministry of Health as well as the Ministry for Local Government,” Kagame noted.
Rwandans are urged to continue adhering to instituted preventive measures to contain the spread of the virus.
The objective of this project is to support Rwanda’s short-run and long-term recovery from the pandemic and resilience to future pandemics by increasing access to broadband and selected digital public services, and strengthening the digital innovation ecosystem. The project has four main components namely Digital Access and Inclusion; Digital public service delivery; Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and Project Management.
Commenting on the development, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana said: “The project will complement Government of Rwanda’s efforts in recovery and resilience to and post covid-19 pandemic and in implementing the National Strategy for Transformation, with a focus on the priority to establish Rwanda as a globally competitive knowledge-based economy”.
“This marks the first digital acceleration investment, the bank is making in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also the second project we are funding in region and both happen to be in Rwanda. We believe that these are first steps towards long term development relationship between Rwanda and the Bank,” AIIB’s Director General of the Banking Department, Mr. Najeeb Haider said
The Minister of ICT and Innovation Paula Musoni said that the additional financial support from AIIB into the Rwanda Digital Acceleration Project is an encouraging step towards realizing Rwanda’s vision to become a digital economy.
“While we are already cashing in on past investments in ICT and leveraging existing digital infrastructure, this financing agreement is a timely commitment that will allow us to further develop our broadband market and enhance Rwanda’s digital innovation ecosystem,” he said.
Rwanda became a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank a year ago and has so far accessed financing worth US$ 200 to fund two key projects which include Finance for Recovery and Resilience (the Economic Recovery Fund and the just signed Rwanda Digital Acceleration Project, which are co-funded by World Bank.
Among others, 12 percent of the entire workforce was in the tourism sector directly and indirectly while more than US$60 million was earned from Meetings Incentives Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE).
As COVID-19 emerged in 2020, the tourism was among most hit hard sectors where revenues dropped to about US$121 million while revenues from MICE shrank to US$4 million. However, the year 2021 gives optimism for the situation to return to normal.
From January until November 2021, Rwanda earned US$134 million from tourism, translating into 19% growth compared to last year.
As at November 2021, arrivals at the airport also increased by 36% in 2021 compared to last year. MICE also increased by 50% this year.
Restaurants and hotels have not been left behind economic recovery where they have registered 62% and 32% in economic growth respectively.
Appearing in televised discussions on the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism and hospitality sector, the CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Clare Akamanzi has explained that the figures reflect how the sector is on the right path of recovery.
“If you compare with 2019 figures as the best year we have had ever, we are still not where we want to be but I think we are beginning to see signs that we are progressing well. The future is promising, Visit Rwanda continues to be a strong brand, on dairies of a lot of people who want to come and visit and continue to showcase the country to the world,” she said.
The General Manager of Onomo Hotel, Emile Nizey has observed that the economic growth was higher than expected in 2021.
As part of efforts to revive the tourism sector adversely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, Rwanda slashed gorilla trekking fees by between 86% for Rwandans and 67% for foreigner living in Rwanda.
Before the discount, gorilla trekking fees was US$1500 set in 2018 up from US$750.
Today, Mountain gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park costs foreign nationals $500, Rwandan citizens and foreign residents pay $200 while international visitors on chartered flights pay $1,500.
{{Why Rwanda removed three-day quarantine for specific visitors}}
The new guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19 Omicron variant which is believed to spread faster obliges all arriving passengers to undergo three-day quarantine at designated hotels. The CEO of RDB, Akamanzi has however explained that the directive doesn’t concern everyone.
“When we announced our new regulations recently, we exempted tourists that are visiting national parks from three-day quarantine. It is not all tourists. I think it clear that it only concerns tourists visiting national parks.That is not all international tourists. There are many tourists coming to Rwanda for business dealings, conferences and visiting families. All those are categorized as tourists,” she said.
“The one that we are exempting from the quarantine is only a small segment of tourists visiting national parks. And why did we do that? This whole exercise of managing the economy in the pandemic context has required a very difficult, complex but continuous balancing effect.
You are balancing managing the health, making sure that you are really curbing down the spread of the pandemic but also want to encourage in a safe way as much economic activity as you can because we need the economy to run, we need lives but also livelihoods, “added Akamanzi.
Akamanzi explained that tourists visiting national parks have the least health risks which she attributed to different reasons.
“First of all, they are very few. Out of 500,000 people that visited Rwanda last year and 1.6 million visitors in 2019, only less than 20,000 visited gorillas. It is a very small number. If you look at those who visited national parks in Nyungwe and Akagera , it is about 6,000 in total ,” she revealed.
With Omicron variant, Akamanzi said that it is expected to be a small number.
Moreover, she explained that many of them are fully vaccinated or have even received the booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
“Secondly, the survey that we have done shows that many of them are not just fully vaccinated but they also received the booster shot. You will find the demographic of the people that are coming to see our national parks, is usually middle to a little bit elder categories. These are people that will make sure they are fully vaccinated before their travel and have even the booster shots. So, the risk of contracting of spreading is a lot lower,” she revealed.
Akamanzi explained that the third reason is to revive the economy considering the fact that the small number attracts huge revenues than other travelers.
On average, Akamanzi underscored that a business tourist spends about US$200, a conference tourist spends about US$300 per day while a tourist visiting gorillas spends US$1300 a day which might reach US$6000 in one trip.
“You can achieve the economic input with few people and less health risks with this category of people compared to bigger numbers,” she said.
Despite the removal of the quarantine for the segment of visitors, COVID-19 test is mandatory where are required to go for PCR test on the first, third and seventh day of their stay in Rwanda.
Ruvebana held the position from 2012 to 2017 when he was replaced by Olivier Kayumba.
The Spokesperson of Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), Dr. Murangira B. Thierry has confirmed to IGIHE that the suspect accused of raping girls is detained at Kicukiro RIB Post.
One of lawyers familiar with the case has told IGIHE that his files might have been transferred to the Prosecution but the Spokesperson of National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) revealed that he has no track of it.
It is said that Ruvebana was arrested on 11th December 2021.
IGIHE has learnt from credible sources that Ruvebana was involved in different rape incidences and defilement, which he is suspected to have committed many years ago where he used to seduce girls with different gifts including clothes to win their hearts.
A witness has told IGIHE that Ruvebana also raped girls when he worked at Rwanda’s embassy in Switzerland in 2006. The witness revealed that victims did not narrate their ordeal lest it would tarnish their image.
According to sources, all the victims were raped between 2003 and 2006.
After presenting credentials, Amb. Mukangira pledged to promote bilateral relations.
“It was a great honour to present my Letters of Credence to His Excellency
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka. I commit to strengthening the bilateral relations between our countries and bringing them to greater heights,” she revealed via Twitter handle.
Recently on 10th December 2021, Amb. Mukangira presented her Letters of Credence to Bidya Devi Bhandari, the President of Nepal.
During the ceremony, the President of Nepal gave her a warm welcome, commended Rwanda’s contribution to the United Nation’s peacekeeping mission and hailed the country’s’ inclusive policies placing women in top decision making positions.
