Kigali Genocide Memorial Center

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On every Rwanda safari, a visit to the Kigali genocide memorial centre is truly a worthwhile experience as you get to know more about the 1994 Rwanda tribal clash between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis. The genocide memorial site is located in Gisozi, an uptown suburb of Kigali - the capital city of Rwanda; it was constructed to commemorate the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi cluster of people.

The Rwandan genocide occurred in 1994 between 7th April and 15th July during the horrible Rwanda civil war where about 800,000 lost their lives in cold blood. The Rwandan civil war was led by the late Fred Rwigyema who Invaded Rwanda from north coming south of Uganda. Fred Rwigyema died after the third day of the war and command was taken on by his deputy Paul kagame.

The rebels came under a flag of the Rwandan patriotic front that was composed of the Tutsi refugees, mainly from Uganda, Tanzania and D.R. Congo. The Rwanda genocide was sparkled off by the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana (the then president of Rwanda) on April 1994.  This genocide was against the Tusti, twa and the moderate Hutu.

Over 750,000 deaths occurred in Rwanda of which 70% were the Tutsi. The rebels killed many people, villagers, neighbors and families killed each other and there was a high sexual violence with over 250,000 women rape during the genocide.
The memorial centre holds over 250,000 remains of the victims of 1994 Rwanda genocide. This site has a section for those want to get to know more about the genocide and the students’ area. This place is also used as a burial ground for the beavered of the genocide victims.

The remains of the victims were collected across the country, brought and buried in lots of 10000.  The Kigali genocide memorial site is among the five genocide sites in Rwanda; others include Nyarubuye, Nyamata, Ntarama, Bisesero and Murambi located in different regions of Rwanda.  

The Rwanda genocide memorial centre construction begun in 2000 with the help of the Aegis trust, the Aegis trust manages the centre on behalf of the National commission for the fight against Genocide. The Aegis trust is an NGO that was founded in 2000 to prevent worldwide genocides. The Aegis trust helped in collecting of data that was to be installed in the center, they imported three graphical exhibits that were written in three languages that were to be installed in the memorial centre.

The interior of the museum was constructed beautifully; with visual and written records concerning the history of the genocide.

The upstairs of the centre has three permanent exhibitions of which one is a children’s memorial center, exhibiting the intimate details of the last words spoken by children before they were killed, their toys, manner in which they were killed and passport sized photos of children.

The other permanent exhibition documents showcase terror and mass killings of the Rwanda genocide of 1994. This is the largest of the three exhibitions.

The third exhibition shows the world wide history of genocide violence and how it has affected numerous countries across the globe. There are also informative audio and video tours inside Kigali genocide memorial center.

“Beauty with scars” at the Kigali genocide Museum is truly a must see on every safari in Rwanda. Besides the genocide sites, one can as well visit the three national parks of Rwanda for gorilla trekking, primate life, wildlife viewing in Volcanoes National Park, Akagera national park and Nyungwe national park respectively.