After brokering a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in June, President Trump is expected to finalize the truce with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
I appeal to Trump to use this diplomatic moment, marking an important step towards peace in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, to also call for justice for my mother, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. There can be no real and lasting peace while peaceful voices like hers are silenced behind bars.
Since my youth, my mother has been a courageous opposition leader in Rwanda. She left our home and comfortable life in the Netherlands in 2010 to return to her native Rwanda and run in the presidential election.
Shortly after her arrival, she was arrested for challenging the country to confront the full history of the 1994 genocide and calling for inclusive reconciliation. She was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment in a politically motivated trial that has been condemned by legal organizations around the world.
The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights later cleared her of all charges and said that she should be compensated. The Rwandan government has refused to recognize the decision to this day, in a breach of its international obligations.
My mother spent eight years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. I was just a teenager when the Rwandan regime first imprisoned her, tearing our family apart. I was too young and scared to fully understand what was happening or to fight for her.
My siblings and I watched from afar as our mother endured years of isolation and mistreatment. When she was finally released in 2018 under a presidential pardon, we hoped to be reunited with her.
However, she was forbidden from leaving Rwanda. Her freedom was conditional. In fact, it wasn’t freedom at all. She missed our weddings. She missed the births of her grandchildren. One of those grandchildren is my 10-year-old daughter, Nehea, who is an American citizen living in Pennsylvania. She has never met her grandmother, let alone hugged her.
She often asks me, “Why can’t Grandma come visit me?” I struggle to find an answer that makes sense to a child. In truth, the answers don’t make sense to me, either.
Earlier this year, I finally had the chance to visit my mother in Rwanda and introduce her to my wife and our two youngest children. It was the first time I had seen her in 15 years. It was a joyful reunion, and I hoped it would be the first of many happy family gatherings.
With the conditions of her presidential pardon set to expire in October, she would have regained the right to travel outside the country. But in June, my mother was rearrested — and the timing was no coincidence.
The charges against her are vague and clearly meant to link her to an ongoing case involving other members of her political party. She is now being tried alongside nine others, all accused of conspiring against the state and spreading false information. In reality, it is about them taking part in peaceful conversations, reading critical literature and attending an online course on nonviolent resistance. That is now being used against them to silence their voices.
The United Nations’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has deemed their imprisonment arbitrary and in violation of international law, and it has called for their immediate release.
This is the second time my mother has been punished simply for promoting peace, human rights and democratic values in Rwanda. She has paid a steep personal price.
Our entire family is paying the price alongside her. Yet, her belief in dialogue, justice and freedom remains steadfast, as does our belief in her.
My mother poses no threat to peace. She embodies what a peaceful, engaged citizen should be: principled, persistent and patient. This is why she has received international recognition for her efforts to defend freedom and human rights.
We haven’t spoken to her since the night the police came to her home in Kigali and took her away. Each day that she remains in detention, we fear for her health and safety, based on her own previous experiences and given credible reports of torture in Rwandan prisons.
Our father, who has lived apart from her for 16 long years, is gravely ill in the Netherlands. If she is not released soon, they may never see each other again. This is not just a political issue — it is a human one.
So today, I make a heartfelt request to Trump — please raise my mother’s case with Kagame.
He have proven himself a champion of fighting for the freedom of those who are held unjustly, as recently as last month when U.S. helped enable the release of Venezuelan political prisoners. I ask that he continue in that spirit and help bring my mother home.
When Kagame visits Washington, I ask that Trump urge him to release nonviolent prisoners of conscience like my mother. Trump has the influence to make this happen and the power to finally give a courageous grandmother the chance to meet her American granddaughter.
By doing so, he would not only change my family’s life forever but also send a powerful message that America is a champion for freedom of expression and democracy around the world.
Rémy Amahirwa is the son of Rwandan dissident and opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.
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