Miss Rwanda yesterday returned from Congo Brazzaville with the Miss Pan Africa Music Festival (FESPAM) crown.FESPAM is a cultural and scientific event held every two years to promote African and Diaspora music. This implies that Aurore Umutesi will reign as Miss FESPAM until 2015. It commenced on July 13 and ended July 20.  "I am so happy to return home with yet another victory for my country. I didn’t expect to pull it off because it was my first time but God helped me through and I hope to win more crowns for my country in the future,” Umutesi told The New Times.Congo Brazaville’s Minister for Culture, Jean-Claude Gakosso said Umutesi deserved to win the crown because she was way better than the rest of the competitors. "Her style and intelligence won it for her,” he said.

Apart from undisclosed cash, she got prizes including travel packages to France, Brazil and Egypt. Mali and Congo Brazzaville were 1st and 2nd runners up respectively.Rwanda was also represented at the ninth edition of FESPAM, by Intore Masamba and his Gakondo group as well Patrick Muhire, a designer.Later this year, she will represent Rwanda at the Miss World pageant slated for September 2013 in Jakarta and Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. Umutesi, 21, is a second year Civil Engineering student at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology.