Lando Ndasingwa

Who was Lando Ndasingwa?

Landoald 'Lando' Ndasingwa was a Rwandan politician, leader of the moderate Parti libéral du Rwanda. He was killed in the beginning of the Rwandan Genocide.

Educated at the Collège Saint-André of Kigali, the Université Nationale du Rwanda at Butare, Université Laval at Quebec City, and Université de Montréal, Ndasingwa was a former professor at the Université Nationale du Rwanda and ethnic Tutsi. He was granted the portfolio of Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the Habyarimana transitional government put in place after the Arusha Accords.

On February 17, 1994, UNAMIR commander Roméo Dallaire received information of a plot to assassinate Ndasingwa and Joseph Kavaruganda, both prominent moderate members of the transitional government. In his book Shake Hands with the Devil, Dallaire claims that he informed them of this plot, and neither were surprised.

On April 7, following Habyarimana's death, Ndasingwa and his Canadian wife, Hélène Pinsky, both graduates of the Université de Montréal, were abducted from their house along with their two children by the government's Presidential Guard, despite being under UNAMIR protection. All were subsequently killed.

One of his sisters, Louise Mushikiwabo, became much later Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Paul Kagame's government.