EU welcomes arrest of 1994 Rwanda genocide suspect

The EU on Friday welcomed the arrest of 1994 Rwanda genocide suspect Fulgence Kayishema.

"Ending impunity for genocide, even more than a quarter of a century later, is indispensable for peace, security and justice," Nabila Massrali, the spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, said in a statement.

"The international community is committed to ensure that the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi be prosecuted and punished," Massrali added.

Kayishema, one of the last fugitives indicted in connection with the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi-an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region-was arrested in South Africa on Wednesday.

The EU commends the joint operation by the Fugitive Tracking Team of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals and South African authorities for the arrest, she said.

Kayishema is accused of orchestrating the massacre of over 2,000 people, including men, women and children, on April 15, 1994, at a church in Nyange, Kibuye Prefecture, in western Rwanda.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in Rwanda in 1994 during a 100-day bloodshed.

He was charged with genocide, involvement in genocide, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2001, and has been on the run since.