Rwanda Genocide Memorial Tours
Rwanda Genocide Memorial Tours enables you to meet the commemorations put in place to rewind for you the incidences of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda,The genocide led to over one million people loose their lives and it is believed that this war happened for about 100 days.
Rwanda Genocide Memorial Sites have exhibits of remains, photographs, and personal belongings like clothing, shoes, and others of the genocide victims.These sites include the following below
Murambi Genocide Memorial site:
This site established on the grounds of former Murambi technical school near Murambi town and is the one of the most difficult memorial to visit because of the bodies and skeletons of genocide victims are threateningly displayed. It is easy to recognize and identify a survivor if indeed they were a relative or friend. Tutsi were advised to hide in the technical school where they were trapped after gathering there, they had no food and were attacked by the militia. The site has several mass graves with former classrooms acting as exhibition rooms.
It’s acknowledged that about to 2700 individuals were slaughtered at this school. Since this genocide ended this place was deserted and the natives settled in others places. Several corpses up to date are being preserved and no one is permitted to distract these sites. Due to the fast developing tourism industry in Rwanda, this school has been refurbished and is currently an exhibition. The Tourists that have visited this area also get free information regarding the intriguing history of the country.
some survivors and natives around the site will narrate to you their disheartening experience during the genocide
Nyamata genocide memorial center
This is a former church located 30 km south of Kigali in Bugesera, Nyamata genocide memorial site has 25,000 Rwanda genocide victims buried here. This is one of the more dark sites in Rwanda after Murambi genocide memorial
It is unfortunate that many Tutsi people gathered here considering it a safe sanctuary because previously churches were seen as safe places. Little did they know that this building was a pure death trap as opposed to life. The Tutsi’s had locked themselves up in the church seeking safety but were shocked when Hutu militias forced open the doors open with hand grenades and reigned on them with machetes. You will find clothes and national ID cards of the dead victims on the church pews with blood spread all over the place. The alter cloth is still stained with blood from the massacre of the several victims. Outside the church are mass graves for your visits.Today the church continues to be in place as a memento of the 1994 Genocide.
Kigali Genocide Memorial Center
The Kigali genocide memorial site is a 10 minutes’ drive from the city center in Gisozi. It is the final resting place of 250,000 Rwandans killed in the genocide. It is run by AEGIS, a UK Non Governmental Organisation committed to stop genocides from happening around the world. The center has different exhibit places with space of skulls of survivors and their personal belongings, photographs of survivors, reconciliation efforts, and genocide perpetrators. Another space has photographs and descriptions of genocides that have happened around the world showing that this indeed is not a Rwandan problem but a world problem that should never happen again. Outside the building, there is a garden and different mass graves where survivors and those who lost loved ones can come to ‘re-connect’. This can be included on your itinerary while on the Kigali city tour because of its location near the city center.
Nyanza Genocide Memorial
Nyanza genocide memorial located on the grounds of Kigali’s Ecole Technique Officielle in Kicukiro district – Kigali city . This often acts as the grounds for the genocide anniversary commemorations which happen yearly in April. It holds the graves of more than 10,000 genocide victims abandoned by the Belgian UN peacekeeping forces as the genocide intensified. The UN forces left these Tutsi’s in the hands of their massacres by not airlifting them to the safety they themselves were going, a sad story of bureaucracy.
Ntarama Memorial site
This genocide site is located about 30 kilometers from Kigali in Bugesera. it is an hour drive from Kigali city. Approximately 5000 people were murdered within the church in the war. Several People had gone to seek refuge there since it was the sole safe place to be. Several people were murdered mostly women and children. Since the genocide, this church was not tampered with and today it is a display site.
Nyarubuye genocide memorial site
It is located 140 km from Kigali is Catholic Church where 2000 Rwandan were killed. It is said that Sylvestre Gacumbitsi the then mayor of the district was involved in distributing arms and encouraging Hutu’s to use rape and later maim and kill the Tutsi’s. Unlike Ntarama and Nyamata genocide memorial sites, Nyarubuye was restored into a church and is currently used by people in the area with the memorial center adjacent to the church.
contact us for a wonderful genocide tours in Rwanda
Telephone No.+256774161700
Leave a Comment