Genocide Memorial Sites

Murambi Genocide Memorial Site
The memorial site is located in the Nyamagabe District with in Southern Province of the country. It is found in an old techinical school which is only 30 minutes drive from the National Museum of Rwanda in Butare.  This is where almost 800 dead bodies of people are layed in the class room. It’s also believed that 400 people wewr mascared in 3 days.  This Genocide memorial site houses a chidren’s section which explains how these children lived and how they died. The area was earlier called Murambi Technical School but was officially renamed to be called Murambi Genocide Memorial site after the 1994 massacre.

Gisozi Genocide Memorial Site
The genocide memorial site is located in Kigali in Gasabo district. It is found in a distance of approxemately 35 kilometers away from the City centre of Kigali. It was opened for tourism in 2004 and this marked the 10th aniversary of the Genocide.  It is believed that the remains of almost 250,000 victims have been reinterred in the cemetry. The site also has a house oif exhibition and there are plans of creating a library and also teaching the genocide history.

Gikondo Genocide Memorial Site
This is the place which marked the beginning of the Rwanda genocide on 9th April 1994. It was a parish church for the Polish Pallotine Mission. On that day, the Interahamwe militia raided the place and started checking Identity cards of every one in the church. The Hutus were discerned from the Tutsis and started hacking them with pangas, hoes and so on. After their death, the Identity cards were collected and burnt but some were salvaged and were used to identify some victims. It is said that almost 110 Tutsis were killed from this place.

Nyamata Genocide Memorial Site
The Genocide Memorial is located about 35 kilometers in the south of Kigali city with in Bugasera region. The site was a former catholic church which was considered to be safe by the victims. Almost 24,000 people were mascared in cold blood between 10th and 12th April from this church.

Bisesero Genocide Memorial site
The genocide memorial site is located in Karongi district in the western provice of the country. It’s a site where almost 27,000 remains of the genocide victims are barried.  The vicims who had hid from this place had strongly resisted and self defended them selves from the killers. However, they were only betrayed by the french soldiers sorrounding the area. The memorai site consists of 9 small buldings which represent the nine communes that formerly made up the province of Kibuye. Now the site where the memorial was built is called the “Hill of Resistance” because of the people’s resistance against their assassins.

Rebero Genocide Memorial Site
The memorial site is located in Kicukiro District on the summits of mount Rebero. The assasins used to throw victims of the genocide from different parts of the country here. Therefore, its believed that almost 14,400 people are barried in this place.
Nyanza- Kicukiro genocide memorial site
This genocide memorial site is also located in the Kicukiro district. It’s believed that almost 5,000 people killed during the genocide were barried in this place. The victims lost their loves immediately after the Belgian Soldiers who were the UN Peace keepers left the place. Some victims were transafered to Nyanza and were killed from there.

Ntarama Genocide Memorial Site
This Genocide Memorial site is found about 30 kilometers away from the capital of Kigali in the south.  The site is a church found in the Bugasera region. This is where most brutal killings of the 1994 genocide took place and also because of this, the floor of the church has not been completely cleened up since the massacre. Visible are still some bones, bits of clothings, shoes, pots, wallets and Identity cards.

Nyarubuye Genocide Memorial Site
It is found only 35 kilometers away from the towns of Kibungo and Kirehe districts.  It was a catholic church which contained houses of priests and nuns and so many people went in this place to seek refuge. It’s said that over 20,000 victims of Tusti were killed from here with in 2 days. That was the 14th and 15th of April 1994.

Gisenyi Genocide Memorial Site
The memorial site is located in the outskirts of Gisenyi. It is where almost 12000 people were killed from during the genocide of 1994. This was one of the Genocide memorial sites to be built with the help of one Genocide survivor’s organisation called Ibuka. Other organisation also heped in its construction and these include: Ministry of youth, sports and culture. Most people killed from here were brought in by their assasins from the near by dangerous roadblock called Corniche and also from the near by locality of Nyundo.