Nyamata Genocide Memorial Site:

Nyamata is situated in the Bugesera district of Rwanda about 35 km from the capital city of Kigali. Nyamata and the surrounding area are classified as one of the regions that was most devastated by the 1994 Genocide.

When the Genocide started in April 1994, many people from Nyamata and surrounding areas came to gather in the town of Nyamata. The Catholic Church and nearby houses belonging to the priests and sisters became havens for the frightened people who fled there hoping to escape death. They used the church as a refuge, thinking the militia would not get in and kill them in a place usually thought of as a sanctuary.

However, according to the testimonies given by survivors, on April 10th 1994 about 10,000 people were killed in and around the area of the Catholic Church. People from all around congregated in the church and locked the iron door with a padlock to protect themselves from the marauding killers. Members of ‘Interahamwe’, the Hutu militia, and the Rwandese Government Forces from the surrounding area managed to break down the door and entered the church with their rifles, grenades and machetes. They massacred all the people who were inside this church and also the people in the surrounding area.

Nyamata Memorial Crypt:

You may decide to go to a storage area where piles of corpse had been burned after the chaos subsided. There is a temporary storage shed of corrugated metal where human bones were piled on tarps. The clothing and wraps of some of the victims are still there.

Inside the Nyamata church:
The brick walls show several gaping holes. The refugees inside had locked the doors to prevent the militia and soldiers from getting to them. So the Interahamwe used sledge hammers to break open holes through which grenades were thrown to kill and stun. Then the killers entered and finished off the survivors, men, women and children, with machetes and clubs, and whatever was at hand.

In memory of the people who lost their lives in Nyamata Church and its surrounding area, the Rwandese government, in collaboration with the Genocide survivors from the Nyamata area, decided that the church would no longer be used as a church, but would be kept as a memorial. Today this site is visited by many tourists who want to see what happened during the Genocide in 1994 and who want to honor all those who lost their lives and all the survivors of that horrible time.

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