The former mayor of a Rwandan town has been convicted on genocide charges in connection with the 1994 massacre of some 2,000 people in his district.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced Gregory Ndahimana to 15 years in prison on Thursday, after finding him guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors had accused Ndahimana of helping to plan and carry out the slaughter of ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda's Kivumu district in April 1994.

The judges dismissed those allegations, saying the massacre resulted from broad coordination by local authorities.

But, judges noted that Ndahimana was present at the scene of the crime, and failed to exercise control over the police.

Most of the Tutsis died when Hutu militants bulldozed a church where the Tutsis had taken refuge from Hutu attacks.

Hutu militants killed an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates during the Rwandan genocide.