Paul Rusesabagina

In 2021, the US State Department released a report detailing several human rights violations, which included, quote, "unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government and forced disappearance by the government." Among those is poet and social critic Innocent Bati, who remains missing.

Then there's the case of Paul Rusesabagina, who's known for his role in saving thousands of lives during the genocide, as depicted in the Oscar-nominated film Hotel Rwanda, but more recently for having been kidnapped by the Rwandan government.

Rusesabagina was a vocal critic of the Kagame administration before he boarded a private flight from Dubai to Burundi for a speaking engagement, or so he thought.

Instead, he was sedated and flown against his will to Kigali, where he was detained and held in solitary confinement before the government found him guilty on terrorism-related charges and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

She was eventually acquitted by the African Court on Human and People's Rights, which found that the Rwandan government had violated her rights.

Paul Rusesabagina, the man whose actions during the genocide were dramatised in the film Hotel Rwanda, was arrested in 2020 after a plane he believed was heading to Burundi diverted to Kigali, then sentenced to 25 years in prison on terrorism charges before being released after a presidential pardon in 2023.

Per the Centre for Justice and Foreign Policies analysis published in January 2025, Kagame and his ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front , have been in power since the genocide, winning the two most recent elections with 99% of the vote on both occasions.

A 2015 constitutional referendum extended his eligibility to run for office until 2034.