Beyond the airwaves, Kabuga used his logistics empire to arm the Interahamwe militias. Investigations revealed that his companies imported hundreds of thousands of cheap machetes from China—far more than were needed for Rwanda’s agricultural sector. In a country where bullets were expensive, Kabuga provided the tools for a manual, face-to-face slaughter, ensuring that the genocide was both low-tech and terrifyingly efficient. The Ghost of the Pyrenees
After the 1994 genocide, Kabuga became one of the world’s most elusive fugitives. For 26 years, he vanished into a shadow world of aliases and high-level protection, traversing Africa and Europe with a $5 million bounty on his head. [S1E2] FГ©licien Kabuga: The Financer of the Gen...
Félicien Kabuga stands as a haunting example of the "banality of evil" mixed with the power of capital. He proved that you don’t need to hold a gun to be a mass murderer; you only need a radio frequency, a shipment of blades, and a total absence of conscience. Beyond the airwaves, Kabuga used his logistics empire
Kabuga’s eventual capture served as a stark reminder that the "wheels of justice turn slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine." Although his trial in The Hague was eventually halted in 2023 due to his advancing dementia, his arrest shattered the myth of his untouchability. The Ghost of the Pyrenees After the 1994
His story took a cinematic turn in May 2020. At age 87, the "Financier of Genocide" was finally cornered not in a jungle or a war zone, but in a quiet, nondescript apartment in , a suburb of Paris. He had been living under a false identity, shielded by his children and the anonymity of urban life. A Legacy of Accountability
While radio is usually a tool for information, Kabuga’s station turned it into a weapon of mass psychological warfare. RTLM didn’t just spread "fake news"; it dehumanized the Tutsi population, calling them "cockroaches" and literally broadcasting the names and locations of people to be murdered. He took the intimacy of radio and used it to turn neighbors into executioners. The Business of Death
The story of Félicien Kabuga is a chilling study of how immense wealth can be weaponized to dismantle a nation. Once one of Rwanda's richest men, Kabuga didn’t just fund a genocide; he industrialized it. The Architect of Hate
