April 20, 1994, was the day Queen Rosalie Gicanda was murdered in Butare, as the Genocide against the Tutsi raged across the country.
She was killed on the orders of Captain Ildephonse Nizeyimana, a senior officer at École des Sous-Officiers (ESO), a military training school in Butare.
Nizeyimana sent soldiers to her home near the Ngoma Commune office. The group included Lieutenant Bizimana, known as Rwatsi, Lieutenant Gakwerere, Corporal Aloys Mazimpaka, and Dr. Kageruka. They dragged Queen Gicanda from her house and shot her.
After the genocide, Nizeyimana was arrested, tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and sentenced to 35 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.
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Just hours after her murder, the killings intensified. Interim president Théodore Sindikubwabo visited Ndora and Shyanda areas in Gisagara District, and continued to invite the masses.
That same day in Butare, the newly appointed Prefect Nsabimana, who had just been installed by Sindikubwabo the night before, held a meeting to organise how the genocide would be carried out in Butare.
At the same time, massacres continued across Rwanda. In Mugombwa Parish, in Gisagara, thousands of Tutsi who had taken refuge inside a church were slaughtered.
When Interahamwe and soldiers arrived, they threw grenades at the church and set the building on fire. Around 26,700 people were burned or hacked to death there.
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In Ruhango District, in Rutabo areas, the killers dug a huge pit in which the Tutsi were thrown, dead and alive. The pit was excavated near Rutabo Primary School by a teacher named Jacques Nsabimana.
At Nyumba Catholic Parish in Gishamvu areas of Butare, the birthplace of Jean Kambanda, the former Prime Minister of the genocidal government, between 25,000 and 30,000 Tutsi were shot dead by the killers.
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Among the killers who carried out the massacre was Pascal Kambanda, the former mayor of Gishamvu Commune, Assiel Simbarikure, a local leader from Busoro, Pierre Celestin Nzavugejo, a medical assistant officer at Busoro Health Center, and Laurent Kubwimana, a teacher.
In Busekanka near Lake Kivu, many Tutsi were killed while fleeing to Zaïre (current DR Congo), while others were taken from their homes and killed at the lake.