Rwandan genocide architect dies in Mali

Former Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, who is considered the architect of the 1994 massacres in Rwanda, has died in Mali at the age of 80.

According to a BBC report, an UN-backed criminal tribunal found Bagosora guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced him to life in prison in 2008. That sentence was later reduced to 35 years.

The former colonel’s son, who held a key position in Rwanda’s defense ministry at the time of the genocide, told the BBC his father died in a hospital in the Malian capital Bamako.

He was treated there for heart problems. Bagosora stayed in Mali because he was serving his sentence in prison there.

In 1994, about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered in three months. The massacres began after the plane of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down on April 6, 1994. All occupants were killed.