Nyanza Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali Rwanda
Nyanza Genocide Memorial is found in Kicukiro, a suburb southeast of the Kigali City centre towards the airport. At this memorial, there are four tiled mass graves said to contain the remains of about 2000 Tutsis genocide victims who sought refuge in the Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO) grounds and several unmarked wooden crosses. Initially at its inception, the Nyanza genocide memorial was to commemorate only 2000 Tutsi genocide victims but at present, the number rose with the addition of 84,437 remains in May 2019. Remains of about 9000 were also buried at Nyanza in the previous years making totaling to about 11000 victims.
Nyanza also on on the list of the genocide memorial sites in Rwanda, is a resting place for 11000 plus the added 84,437 that were also killed during the 1994 holocaust bringing the total to 95,437 laid here. The added remains were for those mostly Tutsis massacred in the first 100 days by Hutu extremists and militia forces who were determined to eliminate the Tutsi minority out of Rwanda. The remains of those interred in 2019 were only found early 2018 when 143 pits containing thousands of bone and clothing rubbishes were discovered beneath some homes on the outskirts of Kigali.
At the beginning of the genocide in April 1994, over 2,000 Tutsis ran into the École Technique Officielle (ETO) which was a Salesian secondary school in Kigali. On April 11, 1994 ETO school on the outskirts of Kigali protected by then the United Nations Peace Keeping force was attacked by the Hutu Militiamen and killed the Tutsis. When the UN peace keepers pulled out, the victims were made to walk up the road to Nyanza where they were all murdered. Presently, the Nyanza memorial is marked by simple wooden crosses which manifests neglect of Rwanda by the International Community. Each year on April 11th, a memorial event takes place on the site where the abandoned refugees were murdered in cold blood. After the killing of 10 Belgian soldiers at Camp Kigali plus the consequent removal of Belgian troops, the Tutsis at the place were left undefended and eventually taken to Nyanza and exterminated.
The ethnic bloodshed in Rwanda ended on July 4 when the then Tutsi rebels led by the current president Paul Kagame captured power and chased the genocidal perpetrators out Rwanda.