Number of bodies exhumed from Amahoro Stadium rises to 38
Friday, September 01, 2023
Ongoing costruction activities to revamp Amahoro Stadium. Photo by Emmanuel Dushimimana

The number of human remains exhumed from the construction site of Amahoro National Stadium has risen to 38.

For the past two weeks, construction workers undertaking the upgrading of the stadium have been discovering human remains suspected to be of victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

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A process is underway to gather more information about their identity and the circumstances of their death.

Earlier this week, Remera sector’s Social Affairs team leader, Pauline Rutazana, told The New Times a total of 32 bodies had been exhumed, a number that has since risen to 38.

When discovered, they are removed from the site and taken to the premises of the administration of Remera Sector where they are stored as more information is sought.

Gasabo District administration is working with Ibuka (Genocide survivors' umbrella) and village and cell administrations to establish the remains’ identity.

Amahoro stadium hosted refugees from across the city as killings started in April 1994.

Retired Reverend Antoine Rutaisire, a survivor of the Genocide who sought refuge at the stadium, suggested a number of possibilities under which people whose remains were discovered might have been killed.

According to him, in the run-up to the Genocide, the area around the stadium hosted a police station and the sector's administration office. The two facilities were used for detaining people suspected of being accomplices to the Rwanda Patriotic Front. With such, he suggested the possibility that some people were killed and buried there.

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He also hinted at the fact that on the night of April 6, 1994, the roads within the vicinity of the stadium and other areas near Kigali International Airport were targeted by the Interahamwe and government soldiers.

"Many Tutsi who were found on the road were killed,” he said.