Rwanda genocide suspect Kabuga arrested in France

Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, who is accused of funding militias that massacred about 800,000 people, was arrested near Paris after 26 years on the run, the French justice ministry said.

Olivia Chan reports.

Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga was arrested on Saturday (May 16) near Paris after 26 years on the run.

He is accused of funding Hutu militias that massacred about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994.

The 84-year-old is Rwanda's most-wanted man - and had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head.

French authorities say he was living under a false identity in a flat in a suburb near the capital.

Kabuga was indicted in 1997 on seven criminal counts in relation to the Rwanda genocide, according to the UN-established International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.

The arrest paves the way for bringing the fugitive in front of the Paris Appeal Court and later to the international court in The Hague.

Rwanda's two main ethnic groups are the Hutus and Tutsis who have historically had an antagonistic relationship and fought a civil war in the early 1990s.