Itinerary
Pick up in Kigali and transfer to Bugesera to visit the Ntarama and Nyamata genocide memorial churches where thousands of Tutsis were butchered hoping to be safe in houses of God during 1994 Genocide against Tustis.
The church of Ntarama was converted into a Genocide memorial on 14th April 1995 and is dedicated to the 5000 people who lost their lives there. One of the Rwanda’s six National Memorial sites, Ntarama contains human remains, clothing and artifacts belonging to those who were killed at the church, which remains on display at all times.
This site is a church where around 2,500 people were killed and it has become emblematic of the barbaric treatment of women during the genocide. In the church at Nyamata, there will be graphic and audio-visual displays that will focus particularly on the mass rape, brutalisation of women and the use of HIV as a deliberate weapon of genocide.
Nyamata and the surrounding region suffered some of the most extensive devastation in 1994, a result of targeted attacks during the Genocide Against the Tutsi. When the Genocide began in April of 1994, many residents of the region gathered in Nyamata and sought protection at the local Catholic Church. The church compound, tended to by priests and nuns, provided a haven for the frightened masses that flocked to the compound, hoping to escape death. The church was thought of as a place of refuge and of sanctuary where the militia would not dare to attack.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. According to testimonies given by survivors and evidence gathered, approximately 10,000 civilians were killed in and around the Catholic Church compound on April 10, 1994. As the marauding killers approached, people gathered in the church and padlocked the iron door that safeguarded the entrance. Members of the ‘Interahamwe’, the Hutu militia, and the Rwandese Government Forces forced the door open and entered the church with their rifles, grenades and machetes. They massacred the people hiding inside the church and also went on to kill those in the surrounding area.
