TWO-TIME reigning champions, Espoir Basketball Club are organising memorial activities to remember and honor their players, staff members and fans who perished during the tragedy of 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. 

The Nyamirambo-based Espoir lost over 20 people but they are carrying out a research to identify clearly the exact number of their members who died in the 100 days of Genocide against the Tutsi, according to club president Fidele Rutagarama. 

"We are organising activities to remember our players, staff members, fans and basketball players in general who lost their lives during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. We will host a memorial basketball tournament that will include senior teams’ category (men and women) and junior teams’ competition (boys and girls). We also want to visit an orphanage, a memorial site and help one Genocide survivor among other activities,” he explained. 

Jean Bahufite’s club, Espoir is the 2012 Fiba Africa Zone V champions and last year’s finalists. They also hold an unbeaten record of two and half seasons in the local basketball championship. 

After the ongoing league’s first round, still unbeaten Espoir lead the standings with 20 points from ten matches, CSK stand second with 17 points in nine games, APR come third with 16 in nine matches too while UGB in the fourth place have 16 points from 10 matches respectively.