Staff members of the national carrier RwandAir on Friday visited Nyanza Genocide Memorial in Kicukiro District where they commemorated the lives of their former colleagues who were killed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

The ceremony involved families and friends of the 17 victims that were staff at the then Air Rwanda airline.

According to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Silver Munyaneza, there is a possibility that four of the 17 victims could have been wiped out with their entire families since efforts to gather information about what befell them have been fruitless.

"We have been working closely with responsible organs to get more information about four of our former staff but we have not been able to identify anyone from their families,” he said.

Munyaneza revealed that as part of their support to genocide victims, the airline was currently taking care of 12 families of survivors.

"As Rwandair, we are taking care of 12 families of genocide survivors. For instance, this year, we have been able to pay health insurance for 300 families,” he said.

Testimonies

Béline Mukankusi was married to Raphael Karinganire, who was an engineer at Air Rwanda during the genocide.

Karinganire and Mukankusi had nine children. Today, Mukankusi is a widow and is left with six children after three were killed alongside their father.

According to Mukankusi, her husband had been subjected to discrimination long before the genocide, often facing suspensions from work because of being Tutsi.

"Fortunately, my husband had worked as an engineer for long, had exceptional expertise and was good at his job having learnt aviation engineering from several colleges abroad. He would be fired with other Tutsis and then be reinstated because they couldn’t get a suitable replacement,” she said.

Karinganire is one of the people who were killed at Nyanza-Kicukiro with his parents and siblings.

About Nyanza

Nyanza-Kicukiro Genocide Memorial is the final resting place for over 11000 victims of the genocide.

At the time of the genocide, Tutsis were led from ETO Kicukiro and the surrounding places and taken to Nyanza where they were slaughtered in thousands.

ETO Kicukiro was a vocational school at the time of genocide and was a base for the United Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), a Belgian UN peacekeeping force.

On April 8, 1994, thousands of Tutsis arrived at ETO Kicukiro seeking protection from the UNAMIR but the force received 2000, claiming there wasn’t enough space for more.

The genocidal Interahamwe militias could not access the Tutsis until April 11 when UNAMIR left, placing the fate of thousands in the hands of their killers.

The then Mayor of Kigali City Col Tharcise Renzaho commanded the head of Interahamwe militias Rusatira to take the Tutsis from ETO Kicukiro to Nyanza hill where the city’s dumping site was located.

Over 5000 were killed on the Nyanza hill. The RPF arrived in Nyanza on April 12 and rescued some 100 who were still alive.

In 1995, the area where the atrocities happened was officially declared the Nyanza- Kicukiro genocide memorial site.

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