Paris: Genocide survivor recalls ETO Kicukiro ordeal

Jeanne Uwimbabazi was 16 years old when the Genocide against the Tutsi began on April 7, 1994. She lived with her family in Kigali. During the Easter holidays, they had been preparing for the baptism of her 11-month-old niece, Ornella, scheduled for April 10. ALSO READ: Kagame’s speech at inauguration of Genocide memorial in Paris Their lives changed forever on the evening of April 6, when the plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down in Kigali. By morning, violence had erupted across the country. “Very early on April 7, my father asked us to leave our home because it had become too dangerous,” Uwimbabazi recalled as she spoke on Tuesday, June 2, at the inauguration of France’s first permanent memorial dedicated to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Hours later, her father was killed by soldiers of the former Rwandan army. As violence engulfed the capital city, Uwimbabazi's family became dispersed, trying to find safety. Hoping that a United Nations-protected site offered the best chance of survival, Uwimbabazi eventually reached the ETO Kicukiro school, where thousands of civilians had gathered under the protection of UN peacekeepers. ALSO READ: Kagame, Macron unveil memorial for Genocide against the Tutsi For days, the displaced believed they were safe. However, on April 11, foreign nationals were evacuated, the UN troops withdrew, leaving approximately 2,000 Rwandans behind in the hands of machete-wielding Interahamwe militia. “We watched the last Western civilians leave under military escort,” she said. “Then the peacekeepers told us they would remain. Shortly afterward, they too departed. They abandoned us.” She described the panic that followed as desperate civilians tried to stop the departing UN military vehicles. “Their mere presence would have been enough to protect us,” she said. Soon after the withdrawal, militias and soldiers entered the area. Refugees were rounded up and marched to Nyanza in Kicukiro, where mass killings would took place. “My whole world shattered in that place,” Uwimbabazi said. She lost her mother Angéline, her sister Marie-Josée, uncles, cousins, neighbours, childhood friends, and countless others. “It is a long list,” she said. “Only a few people survived.” After surviving the massacre, she spent several days hiding in nearby bushes before being discovered by attackers who left her in wounds. RPA soldiers later rescued her and other survivors and transported them to safety. She particularly remembered a soldier who remained with her and comforted her when she had nearly lost all hope. “During our journey through darkness, they represented humanity,” she said. “They rescued us from annihilation.” Following treatment in Rwanda, Uwimbabazi was evacuated to France, where she was welcomed by a host family that helped her rebuild her life. Uwimbabazi recalled arriving at Orly Airport in France on June 5, 1994, alongside 31 other seriously injured children who had been evacuated for medical treatment. “Everything felt surreal,” she said. “We had just survived the ultimate crime, the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi. Bearing witness became almost a final act of resistance against the forgetfulness and erasure to which we were destined.” In the years that followed, she became committed to sharing her testimony, particularly in France, where she said survivors often encountered denial and distortion of the genocide that claimed over one million lives. Reflecting on the newly inaugurated memorial in Paris, Uwimbabazi described it as an important act of remembrance and symbolic reparation. “It permanently restores the presence of those who disappeared in the public sphere,” she said. “It is a work of education, transmission, and reflection for future generations.” She commended French authorities for supporting the project to erect the Genocide memorial. She also stressed the importance of justice for survivors and victims’ families. While welcoming the prosecution of genocide suspects in France, she argued that justice must remain accessible to those most affected, emphasizing the need for extradition to Rwanda. “It is essential that survivors and families of the victims be able to attend the trials of those accused of genocide,” she said. “Justice is also a space where facts, perpetrators, and victims confront one another.”

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Paris: Genocide survivor recalls ETO Kicukiro ordeal