Rwanda national basketball U-18 team along with their counterparts from Uganda, Angola, Algeria and Tunisia yesterday visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial and paid respects to the more than 259,000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi buried at the memorial.

The teams are participating in the 2016 FIBA Africa U18 Men’s Basketball Championships currently taking place in Kigali.

The Rwandan team was led by their head coach Moise Mutokambali, who emphasised the importance and the need to educate and share the history of Rwanda with others, in this case, the teams competing in the FIBA Africa U18 Championships. 

"Our objective was to share our history with other countries. In this regard, we brought them to the memorial so that they could witness firsthand what happened in Rwanda. As for our Rwandan team, this visit meant to inspire them to play an active role in national reconstruction,” said Mutokambali.

Speaking on behalf of the visiting foreign players, Matthew Ochieng, the captain of the Ugandan team, said, the visit to Kigali Genocide memorial was educational and moving.

"When you are here you grasp the depth and impact of the Genocide. We have seen the pictures, read the history of the Genocide, and heard painful testimonies in the memorial’s exhibitions,” he said.

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