Niger has ordered that eight Rwandans linked to the East African country’s 1994 genocide be expelled for “diplomatic reasons”, according to a ministerial order.
The order was published after a previous report on the expulsions by the Jeune Afrique news magazine said that Niger’s government made the U-turn after Rwanda expressed its displeasure about their arrival in Niamey, just a month ago.
On November 15, Niger signed an agreement with the UN to host nine Rwandans; the eight were expelled as well as former Rwandan Foreign Minister Jerome Clement Bicamumpaka, who was also acquitted by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
“The people whose names follow are definitively expelled from the territory of Niger with a permanent residence ban for diplomatic reasons,” said the order, which was signed by Niger’s Interior Minister, Hamadou Amadou Souley.
“The interested parties will be given notice to leave the territory of Niger within seven days,” the minister order said, without indicating where they would be expelled to.
Around 800,000 people died between April and July 1994 in Rwanda as the extremist Hutu regime tried to wipe out the Tutsi minority, causing one of the 20th century’s biggest massacres.
