Rwandans living in Singapore on Friday celebrated the 20th liberation anniversary.

Held at the Hilton Orchard Hotel, the event was also attended by Singaporean government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, business leaders and friends of Rwanda.

Singapore’s Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministries of Education and Manpower, Hawazi Daipi, represented the government at the function, together with Members of Parliament, Ellen Lee and Zainal Sapari.

The event was attended by more than 100 people.

In his opening speech, Lucas Murenzi, the acting charge d’affaires of the Rwanda High Commission in Singapore, recounted the country’s liberation history and gave a recap of the progress registered by over the last 20 years.

He acknowledged the liberators for sacrificing for the liberation and wellbeing of Rwandans.

The Singaporean government representative, Hawazi Daipi, listed achievements registered by the post-Genocide government of Rwanda such as unity, investment promotion, poverty reduction and other social, political and economic milestones reached in the last 20 years.

He said Singapore was looking forward to strengthening the already good relations between the two countries.

Prior to the event, the President of Singapore, Tony Tan, had sent a congratulatory message to his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame on the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Rwanda.

The guests were entertained by traditional Rwandan dance performed by members of the Rwandan student community in Malaysia.