Rwandan diplomat Venetia Sebudandi, who passed away on Monday, November 13, will be laid to rest on Saturday, The New Times has learnt.

Sebudandi, who served as Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva from 2006 to 2011, succumbed to an illness while receiving treatment at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali.

Sebudandi was born in Gahini, eastern Rwanda on October 29, 1954. She was the second of five children.

Diplomatic career

Sebudandi served as Rwanda’s ambassador to Sweden and other Nordic countries from 2011. She also served as ambassador to Japan until 2019.

Prior to her appointment to Geneva in 2006, Sebudandi had been serving at the Embassy of Rwanda is Paris since 2002 as Deputy Chief of Mission and in charge of multilateral organizations including UNESCO and the Francophonie.

From 1996 to 2001, she served as the Chief of Protocol and Director of State Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Rwanda. Before joining the Ministry, she worked in Uganda and Kenya in the private sector.

Sebudandi had a master’s degree in diplomatic studies from the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom and a Diploma in education from Makerere University in Kampala.

She also had an Advanced Language Diploma from the University of Clermont Ferrand in France.

The former envoy is survived by one child.