Retired General Marcel Gatsinzi who served as Rwanda's Minister of Defence from 2002 to 2010, has passed on, The New Times has learnt.

According to reports, Gatsinzi died of sickness in Belgium where he had gone for treatment.

ALSO READ: A General’s memories of 45 years in the army

By press time, his family was yet to release more details about the funeral. Apart from serving as Rwanda’s Minister of Defence, he also was the Minister of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs from 2010 to 2013.

Gatsinzi was born on January 9, 1948 and started his formal education at Collège Saint-André in Nyamirambo where he graduated with a diploma in 1968.

His military career began at the then Kigali Military Academy in the same year (1968), and he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on March 31, 1970.

ALSO READ: Gen. Marcel Gatsinzi to head new ministry

He pursued his military career courses in Belgium at Heverlee (Louvain) in the School of Logistics in 1971 and in Brussels at the Royal High Institute of Defence from 1974 to 1976.

Beside the military assignments in the military, Gatsinzi served in the African Union Neutral Military Observer Group that was meant to monitor the ceasefire during the period of the negotiations between the Habyarimana regime and the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA). He also participated in the negotiations process.

Gatsinzi retired in October 2013.