Dafroza Mukarumongi-Gauthier, known as “the hunter of génocidaires in France” and “the Klarsfeld of Rwanda,” has passed away.
Dafroza was a survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. She lost nearly 80 members of her family, including her mother, Suzana, who was shot dead outside a Kigali church where she had sought refuge.
No one survived on her mother's side.
Grief consumed her, but she refused to be carried by it. With her French husband, Alain Gauthier, she vowed that the architects of the genocide would never die peacefully in their beds, nor hide in Europe forever.
Many perpetrators had found refuge in France, living anonymous lives as doctors, teachers, priests and municipal employees, their pasts erased. In 2001, from their home in Reims, the couple founded the Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda. They had little more than determination and their own savings.
She made hundreds of journeys between France and Rwanda, gathering the names, dates and evidence that French authorities had long ignored. Genocide fugitives and their families across France lived in fear that at some point she would find them and bring them to justice.
Her mission was never hatred or vengeance. It was moral restitution. "The only worthy burial we can offer them is justice itself," she once said.
Their work led to more than 30 legal cases and seven convictions, with sentences ranging from 14 years to life. Each verdict was a victory of memory over oblivion.
In 2017, President Kagame awarded Dafroza and Alain Gauthier Medals of Honour for their friendship pact, “Igihango” with Rwanda, one of the country's highest civilian honours.
Rest in peace, Dafroza. Strength to the Gauthier family.