Rwanda National Olympic and Sports Committee in partnership with the Ministry of Sports and Culture alongside 11 national federations will organise Genocide memorial competitions this weekend. This is in commemoration of the sportsmen and women as well as other Rwandans, who lost their lives during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. Sixteen teams from all provinces across the country will take part in the Kung Fu memorial games on Saturday at Amahoro Indoor Stadium. Teams will compete in different classifications for both men and women. Competitions started on Friday and will run until Sunday in karate, swimming, basketball and taekwondo. The karate federation memorial games will be held in Musanze because there are many karate clubs in that area. It will be the fourth edition since the federation started such events. In swimming, men and women will compete in different classifications which include: freestyle, butterfly, and breaststroke. A long distance race is planned to take place at Muhazi Lake. For taekwondo, it will be the second edition for the federation to stage a memorial tournament. 168 participants will compete countrywide. “As the sports fraternity, we are joining fellow Rwandans to commemorate and remember the people who lost their lives during the Genocide that saw over one million people killed,” explained RNOSC president Robert Bayigamba. “Kwibuka is a platform for us as a country to say ‘Never Again.’ Therefore, we come together to use sports to bring about peace in our society. Through sports, we want to reconcile and spread the virtue of peace in our country.”
