April 7 marks 30 years since the start of a genocide that would see nearly 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus murdered in Rwanda. Scars on survivors’ bodies remind Rwandans of the killings. A deep trauma also remains.On Sunday, Rwanda will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in the Central African nation.
More than 1 million people — mostly from the Tutsi minority ethnic group, but also moderates from the Hutu majority who tried to protect Tutsis — were systematically murdered by Hutu extremists during a 100-day killing spree that started on April 7, 1994.The United Nations is holding events to remember the victims and honor the survivors. “We will never forget the victims of this genocide,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement. “Nor will we ever forget the bravery and resilience of those who survived.” Family massacre: a personal tragedyFreddy Mutanguha, a Tutsi, is one of the survivors.
Mutanguha was 18 years old at the time of the genocide and on a school break in his home village of Mushubati in Kibuye, a city around 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.
Hutu extremists had been hunting down young men they suspected of sympathizing with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RFP), a mainly Tutsi rebel group led by Paul Kagame, who would go on to become Rwanda’s president.Fearing the worst for her son, Mutanguha’s mother advised him to hide in the house of a Hutu he had gone to school with.
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