A UN war crimes court has given life sentences to two key organizers of the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

The sentences were imposed on Matthieu Ngirumpatse and Edouard Karemera, two senior members of Rwanda's former ruling party.

They were convicted of genocide by the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

In 1994 around 800,000 people - ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus - were killed in just 100 days.

The ICTR ruled that Ngirumpatse and Karemera were part of a "joint criminal enterprise" to exterminate Tutsis.

"The court unanimously condemns Ngirumpatse to life in jail," said presiding Judge Dennis Byron, before pronouncing the same sentence for Karemera, BBC reported.