Agathe Habyarimana

Common card · No. 280033

Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana (née Kanziga; born 21 January 1942 in Karago, Gisenyi prefecture, Western Province, Rwanda) is the widow of former President of Rwanda Juvénal Habyarimana and former First Lady of Rwanda from 1973 until 1994. Kanziga is part of both Tutsi and Hutu lineage that long ruled an independent principality until the late nineteenth century. She was arrested by French authorities on 2 March 2010 in France following the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Rwanda. She was frequently regarded as one of the powers behind the throne during her husband's 20-year presidency, and her family connections to powerful Hutu politicians are often regarded as having provided necessary political capital for Habyarimana. She was the centre of a powerful clique of northern Hutus called akazu (Kinyarwanda for "little house"), an informal organization of Hutu extremists whose members contributed strongly to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. On 9 April 1994, immediately following Juvénal...

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