Members of the Rwandan community in Liberia on Saturday paid homage to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. The commemoration was held in collaboration with University of Liberia and the Association of Ebola survivors in Liberia.
Members of the Rwandan community in Liberia on Saturday paid homage to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
The commemoration was held in collaboration with University of Liberia and the Association of Ebola survivors in Liberia.
During the ceremony, the community was joined by the university administrators, students and lecturers, United Nations and African Union (AU) diplomats as well as Liberian Assistant Minister for Public Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who represented the Government of Liberia at the event.
The ceremony started with a walk to remember the over a million Tutsi killed during the 100 dark days of 1994.
It was followed by a session of commemoration conversation, led by officials after watching a documentary on how the Genocide was prepared and executed.
The conversations also focused on the role of the youth in the country’s journey of socio-economic recovery and how they can build on the reconciliation that the country has achieved so far. Wycliffe Kwikiriza, a security officer at the UN Mission in Liberia, who spoke on behalf of the Rwandan community living in Liberia, thanked those who came to support them during the commemoration event.
He highlighted the suffering endured by survivors, and the recovery process, thanks to the current good governance in Rwanda.
Kwikiriza urged the youth to learn from what they learnt from both the film documentary and different speeches from officials, adding that society expects a lot from them as future leaders.
He also used the occasion to console the Liberians who lost family members as a result of Ebola.
"The UN and AU representatives also hailed Rwanda’s progress in good governance and the current development achieved by its citizens after the Genocide and its excellent peacekeeping initiatives in different missions in Africa and across the world,” according to a statement.
Liberian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, B. Elias Shoniyin, described Rwanda’s recovery through home-grown solutions as heroic, it added.
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