No event has had a greater impact on the history of Rwanda than the 1994 civil war. In a 100-day period and under the watchful eye of a UN peacekeeping force, Hutus systematically murdered more than one million Tutsis. The genocide memorial centre in Kigali is a monument to one of the bloodiest genocides in world history.
The Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre was inaugurated on the 10th anniversary of the genocide, in 2004. The centre is located in the suburb of Gisozi, on the spot where 250,000 people found their final resting place in a mass grave ¬- a surreal number. Three permanent exhibitions explain how this happened: how the tension between ethnic groups in the small African country grew, what sparked the genocide and how this tragedy would unfold under the watchful eye of a significant UN peacekeeping force.
“As early as the 15th century, Rwanda was ruled by a Tutsi king and Hutus were oppressed”