Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame made a cabinet reshuffle with some cabinet appointments (fourteen appointments to be precise). From the diplomatic perspective, the veteran Rwandan diplomat, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, was appointed Rwanda’s new Foreign Affairs Minister.
Ambassador Nduhungirehe, an experienced diplomat, held numerous positions spanning close to two decades. He was once Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in charge of the East African Community from September 2017 to April 2020. Also, the new foreign affairs minister was ambassador of Rwanda to Belgium, having jurisdiction over the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the European Union, the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, and the World Customs Organization (WCO). This was from December 2015 to September 2017.
He was also Minister Counsellor, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in charge of the UN Security Council from December 2012 to May 2015.
He was also First Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Rwanda to the United Nations, New York, from August 2010 to December 2012.
More than a decade ago, Ambassador Nduhungirehe was once the first Counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Permanent Mission to the African Union from March 2007 to August 2010, and some years later, acting Director General in charge of Multilateral Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation from May 2015 to December 2015.
Before his recent appointment, Ambassador Olivier Jean Patrick Nduhungirehe was the Ambassador of Rwanda to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
In The Hague, he also served as non-resident Ambassador to the Republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania respectively during his stint as the Ambassador to the Netherlands. During his time in the Netherlands, Ambassador Nduhungirehe was also in charge of following activities of international jurisdictions based in The Hague, mainly the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
Prior to his diplomatic career, the Master’s degree holder in Tax Management from the Solvay Business School of the Free University of Brussels served as a personal assistant to the Minister of State in charge of Industry and Investment Promotion in the Ministry of Trade and Industry from November 2004 to June 2005, amongst other positions.
Also, from the diplomatic perspective with regard to the cabinet reshuffle, the previous Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Vincent Biruta, has been appointed the Minister of Interior, and he replaces his predecessor, Mr Alfred Gasana, who has been proposed as the Rwandan Ambassador to the Netherlands.
Dr. Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, who was Rwanda’s Ambassador to Russia from 2013 to 2019 and, until recently, the Minister of the Environment, has been appointed Minister of Public Service and Labour.
