Rwamagana District authorities on Thursday commemorated the children who fell victim to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in the Sovu Kigabiro sector. Survivors shared heartbreaking stories of the atrocities that were inflicted on innocent victims, particularly women and children. The Interahamwe brutalized and killed many, with babies smashed on walls, some thrown alive into toilets, girls raped in front of their mothers, and women tortured and sprayed with pepper before being killed. Veronica Mukasinafi, a survivor who lost four of her eight children, recounted how women and girls were gathered in two rooms of the primary school in Sovu and raped before being killed. She urged people to never forget these stories and the unimaginable horrors that the victims endured. On April 16th, 1994, militias armed with machetes and traditional weapons killed 631 women and children in Sovu on the orders of local leaders, including Burgomeister Jean Baptist and Sovu leader Francois Turatsinze. The commemoration in Rwamagana served as a reminder of the atrocities that occurred during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, with survivors sharing their stories to honor and remember the lives lost. Radjab Mbonyumuvunyi, the mayor of Rwamagana, emphasized the importance of preventing such atrocities from happening again in the future. Alvera Mukabaramba, the Vice President of the Senate criticized the perpetrators of the genocide, particularly leaders, saying that their mandate was not to protect people but to have them killed. She called for Rwandans to fight, report, and jointly eradicate the spread of genocide ideology. Mukabaramba urged parents to narrate the true stories of the genocide to their children, stating that false information could fuel the spread of genocide ideology. The Sovu genocide memorial site, which contains the remains of 688 women and children killed at Sovu primary school, is one of the 11 memorial sites in Rwamagana. During the 29th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi at Sovu on April 20, eight additional bodies were buried. In total, there are 83,851 Tutsi laid to rest at the 11 genocide memorial sites in the district. Survivors of the genocide took the opportunity to thank the RPF army for stopping the genocide and ensuring that some Tutsi survived. They also requested anyone who knew the location of their killed relatives' bodies to inform them so that they could be buried with dignity.
