A tremor rocked the country at approximately 6:40am. Although no damage was reported, it drew reactions from the public about the country’s state of disaster preparedness.

Peter Tuyisenge, a resident of Kacyiru, Kigali, shared his reaction to the tremor.

"I was on my bed and suddenly everything started shaking. At first I thought it was a bomb but I realised it was an earthquake.

I am however confident that if it was dangerous, the authorities would have the capacity to minimise its damage,” he said.

According to the General Director of the Rwanda Geology and Mines Authority (OGMR), Michael Biryabarema, the tremor was neither dangerous nor destructive.

"People should not worry; Rwanda lies near a mobile belt and tremors will happen once in a while,” he said..

"OGMR contacted colleagues from the Democratic Republic of Congo, America and Brussels who record earthquake magnitudes, but this one was not detected anywhere.”

Biryabarema added that the authority plans to develop its own centre with equipment to detect earthquakes locally without relying on international networks.
Grace Uwimana, a trader in Kigali, believed that judgment day had come.

"Some people spent a whole year advertising that the world would end on 21st May 2011 and I did not take them serious. However, when I felt the quake, I thought their prediction fell just days short from being true,” she narrated.

The last time Rwanda experienced an earthquake was in February 2008, which claimed 34 lives in  the Western Province.

Ends