Every year on April 7, the story of the genocide in Rwanda is, in reality, seven million different stories. Rwanda genocide of 1994, planned campaign of mass murder in Rwanda that occurred over the course of some 100 days in April-July.
On April 6 1994, the mass killing of the Tutsi was ignited when a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like most Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu.
The Tutsi was blamed for downing the plane, which they denied, and bands of Hutu extremists began killing them, including children, with support from the army, police and militias.
There were about 120,000 people living in the Nyamata district at the start of the genocide. Which was believed to be organised by members of the core Hutu political elite, many of whom occupied positions at top levels of the national government. In a little over six weeks only 50,000 were left. Five out of every six Tutsis had been killed.
Much of the hatred between the Tutsi and Hutu stemmed from the ways they were treated under Belgian rule. History , notes that one of the worst massacres of the Rwandan Genocide took place on April 15 to 16, 1994 at the Nyarubuye Roman Catholic Church, located about 60 miles east of Kigali. More than 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and Hutus who tried to protect them were killed in just three months.
This year’s anniversary is amid nationwide lockdown where friends and family members of the victims are unable to visit the memorial site in the capital, Kigali as usual, where they laid a wreath for the genocide casualties.
However, the East African nation followed commemoration events on television or social media as President Paul Kagame lit the flame of remembrance and addressed the nation.
“These unusual circumstances will not prevent us from fulfilling our obligation to commemorate those we lost and console survivors,” he said. “The only change is the way we commemorate.”
The coronavirus pandemic was confirmed to have reached Rwanda in March 2020. Rwanda has set up three health centres to handle coronavirus patients, and here travellers are screened. The East African country has 105 confirmed coronavirus cases.
The Rwandan government has introduced a number of measures to limit the spread of the virus. The country was the first in sub-Saharan Africa to order a total shutdown. Last week the authorities extended the lockdown by two weeks.
The government has been distributing food to the poor to help them stay home. While closing its borders and suspending travel between regions.
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