Six months have passed since eight people acquitted or released by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) were transferred by the UN to Niger, supposedly to live freely and permanently. But they are still without papers and without freedom, confined to a house in Niamey guarded by police and not knowing what will happen to them.
Even in their worst nightmares, the eight Rwandans never imagined being in a worse dead-end than the one they were living in Arusha. Although they were acquitted or released years ago from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), no country wanted them. These famous stateless were no longer expecting much when suddenly they were given three days to pack their bags. Niger would take them in! But nothing went as planned…
While Rwanda formally complained about the UN deal with Niger, officials have not indicated whether the government is engaged with either on the matter.
The United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (UNIRMT) has obstructed Niger’s decision of chasing out eight Rwandans on its soil. They are categorized into those who were convicted by the UNIRMT for crimes of Genocide against the Tutsi and those that were acquitted. On November 15, 2021, the UNIRMT court signed an agreement […]
The authenticity of the order, published by the Nigerien newspaper Air Info, was confirmed by the interior minister, who declined to give further details.