Protais Zigiranyirazo, Former Ruhengeri governor and genocide suspect, dies in Niger

By The Inspirer.

Protais Zigiranyirazo, the former Governor of Ruhengeri Prefecture during President Juvénal Habyarimana’s regime and a one-time genocide suspect, has died.

The news of his death was announced on Monday morning, August 4, 2025, by his son, Antoine Mukiza Zigiranyirazo. He passed away on August 3 in Niamey, Niger.

Zigiranyirazo was among eight Rwandans who remained stranded in Niger after several countries denied them asylum, despite having either been acquitted or completed their sentences issued by the now-defunct International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based in Arusha, Tanzania.

On December 18, 2008, the ICTR had sentenced Zigiranyirazo to 20 years in prison. However, on November 16, 2009, the Appeals Chamber overturned the verdict and acquitted him.

Zigiranyirazo was widely known as a key member of the inner ruling circle known as the Akazu, a powerful network closely linked to Habyarimana’s regime and implicated in planning and orchestrating the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. He was also the brother of Agathe Kanziga, the wife of the late President Juvénal Habyarimana.