Lando Ndasingwa

Landoald 'Lando' Ndasingwa (died 7 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and businessman. He was killed on the first day of the Rwandan genocide.

Hotel Chez Lando
Landoald "Lando" Ndasingwa
Died7 April 1994
Kigali, Rwanda
Occupation(s)Politician, businessman, hotelier
SpouseHélène Pinski
ChildrenMalaika, Patrick[1][2]
ParentBibiane Nyiratulira[2]

Ndasingwa founded the hotel Chez Lando in the 1980s with his Canadian wife Hélène.[3] Following Ndasingwa's death, the hotel was taken over by his sister Anne-Marie Kantengwa.[4]

Educated at the Collège Saint-André of Kigali, the Université Nationale du Rwanda at Butare, Université Laval at Quebec City, McGill University, and Université de Montréal, Ndasingwa was a former professor at the Université Nationale du Rwanda and ethnic Tutsi. As a politician, he was the leader and vice president of the moderate Liberal Party and was granted the portfolio of Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the Habyarimana transitional government put in place after the Arusha Accords. He was the only Tutsi member of the transitional government.[2]

On February 17, 1994, UNAMIR commander Roméo Dallaire received information of a plot to assassinate Ndasingwa and Joseph Kavaruganda, both prominent political moderates. In his book Shake Hands with the Devil, Dallaire claims that he informed them of this plot, and neither were surprised. As an outspoken and well-known public figure, Ndasingwa was the frequent target of attacks on propaganda radio station RTLM.[5]

On April 7, following Habyarimana's death, Ndasingwa and his Canadian wife, Hélène Pinski, both graduates of the Université de Montréal, were abducted from their house along with their two children, Malaika and Patrick (age 17 and 15), and Ndasingwa's mother by the government's Presidential Guard, despite being under UNAMIR protection. All were subsequently killed. During his final moments, he and his family requested UNAMIR troops for protection as the presidential guard assaulted their home, his final words being "It's too late."[6][5][1]

One of his sisters, Louise Mushikiwabo, became much later (December 2009) Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Paul Kagame's government, and, then (October, 2018), Secretary General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.[7][2]

References
  1. "The Globe and Mail: Canadian, World, Politics and Business News & Analysis".
  2. Bartrop, Paul, ed. (2012). A Biographical Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide: Portraits of Evil and Good. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313386794.
  3. "Chez Lando fire causes minimal damage | the Rwanda Focus". Archived from the original on 2016-10-22. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  4. "the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women – Anne-Marie Kantengwa". www.ieew.org. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  5. Off, Carol (2010). The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle. Random House of Canada. pp. 51–52. ISBN 9780307370778.
  6. "Interviews - Colonel Luc Marchal | the Triumph of Evil | FRONTLINE | PBS". PBS.
  7. Mushikiwabo's Autobiography on the site crimesofwar.org Archived 2004-12-05 at the Wayback Machine


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