'Rwandan genocide hunter' Dafroza Gauthier dies at 72
Dafroza Gauthier, who with her husband spent three decades hunting Rwandan genocide suspects in France, has died aged 72. Rwanda's government called her work 'tireless'.
KIGALI — Dafroza Mukarumongi Gauthier, the Franco-Rwandan activist who spent three decades tracking down Rwandan genocide suspects hiding in France, has died at the age of 72 following an illness. News of her death spread on Saturday.
Together with her husband Alain Gauthier, Dafroza founded the Collectif des parties civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR) in 2001, a France-based organisation that gathered testimonies and evidence in Rwanda and compiled case files for French prosecutors. Their campaign began in 1996, and the couple were behind almost all of the roughly 30 complaints filed in France against Rwandans suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
Their work led to a string of convictions in French courts, including that of doctor Eugène Rwamucyo, who was sentenced in 2024 to 27 years in prison for complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity. Dafroza’s command of Kinyarwanda and her training as a chemical engineer also made her a key translator of documents used in court proceedings, and the couple lectured in schools and universities to counter genocide denial.
In November 2017, President Paul Kagame awarded the couple the Igihango National Order of Outstanding Friendship for bringing suspects to justice. In a statement on Saturday, Rwanda’s government described her work as “tireless”, saying her “courage and unwavering commitment to memory, truth and justice leave an enduring legacy”, and extended condolences to her husband, family and friends.
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