This archive report was first published on 10 November 2019.
On November 9, 2019, Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire announced the launch of a new political party, Dalfa Umurunzi (Development And Liberty For All), in a bid to challenge the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front's dominance.
Ingabire's previous party, FDU-Inkingi, which she founded while in exile in 2016, was not recognized by the government of President Paul Kagame.
Ingabire was imprisoned until receiving a presidential pardon last year from Kagame, whom she regularly accuses of suppressing freedom of speech, repressing the opposition, and neglecting the country's poor.
"I am announcing the launch of a new opposition party," Ingabire told AFP, saying it would be called Dalfa Umurunzi.
Ingabire, an ethnic Hutu, was accused of "genocide ideology" and "divisiveness" after publicly questioning the government narrative of the 1994 genocide of mostly Tutsi people that killed around 800,000 people.
Ingabire returned from exile in The Netherlands intending to run for president in 2010 as FDU-Inkingi's leader but was arrested, charged with terrorism, and sentenced to more than a decade in jail during a widely criticized trial.
