1. Home
  2. East Africa
  3. Rwanda

Ex-colonel arrested for genocide

Senegalese police have arrested a former Rwandan army colonel, Aloys Simba, who is wanted for genocide crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, news organisations reported. A privately owned Dakar newspaper, Sud Quotidien, reported that 12 Criminal Investigation Division agents (Division des investigations criminelles), carrying warrants, arrested Simba on Tuesday at his home in town of Thies, 70 km east of the capital. "They came in. My father met them. They showed him the papers and spoke briefly. Then, they took him with them into the night," the paper quoted Simba's 19-year-old daughter as saying. It did not identify her by name. The BBC reported that Simba "is expected to be charged with genocide and crimes against humanity" for massacre of Tutsis in the southern Rwandan province of Gikongoro. BBC reported that he was in charge of "so called defence units" in the province and in Butare, also in the south. Simba, 60, arrived in Senegal directly from Kigali in 1994, Sud Quotidien reported. He first settled in the town of Rufisque, some 28 km east of Dakar, with his wife, sons and mother-in-law and a family friend. His daughter said the family moved to Thies in 1998.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join