Botswana national women’s team and Cobra’s volleyball club from South Sudan (men) have confirmed participation in the upcoming Genocide Memorial Volleyball Tournament scheduled to run from June 6-7 in Kigali.

The Southern Africans will use the 19th edition of the annual competition to prepare for the upcoming African women championships which will be held in Kenya from June 10-21.

A total of 25 teams from eight countries will join Rwandans in commemoration of the 46 (known) members of the volleyball fraternity including players, coaches and administrators as well as other Rwandans who were killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

APR women’s head coach Viateur Sibomana said, "It is going to be a tough competition because this year we have national teams which will be competing against clubs but I think it is going to help our teams to raise their level of playing.”

"We hope to reach as far as possible in this tournament. We have teams from Kenya which have improved in the women’s category so we will meet a challenge this year but we are ready for the tournament,” he added.

DRC will be represented by Espoir Volleyball Club while Inter from Congo Brazzaville has confirmed attendance, under the men’s category.

In the men’s category, Rwanda will be represented by five teams including the defending champions Rayon Sports, APR, INATEK, Kirehe and Lycee de Nyanza while the reigning champions Rwanda Revenue Authority, Ruhango and Groupe Scolaire St Aloys will represent in the women’s category.

Uganda will be represented by Sky, KAVC, Nkumba, KCC, Nemostars and Vision for the women’s category while in the men’s category Nemostars, KAVC, KCC and Sport-S will participate in the annual competition.

Burundi will send two teams including Muzinga for both the women and men’s categories while two Kenyan teams Water and Kenya Academy will compete in the women’s category.

The matches will be played at different grounds across the City of Kigali including Amahoro Indoor Stadium, Kimisagara Youth Center, Ecole Belge, University of Rwanda College of Business and Economics (former SFB) and Premature.

Since 1995, the Rwanda Volleyball Federation (FRVB) is one of the federations that have consistently organized the annual Genocide memorial tournaments in honour of the Genocide victims.