RWANDA Basketball Federation (Ferwaba) has announced that they will make changes to how the Genocide Memorial Tournament (GMT) is organised, effective this year.

The 2019 edition is scheduled for June 4-9.

According to Desire Mugwiza, the Ferwaba president, this year’s memorial tournament, organised in honour of the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, will not have two sections – local and regional – as had been the case for the past four years.

Since 2013 when the tournament changed its name from Gisembe Memorial Tournament to the Genocide Memorial Tournament, the local basketball body has been staging  two tournaments with top four teams from the local edition automatically booking slots to the regional contest.

"The old way of organising this event was too costly, and lasted longer than necessary. Starting with this year, we are going to be having one bigger tournament, with more guest teams from regional countries,” explained Mugwiza.

Ferwaba is one of the local sports federations that have consistently organised the annual memorial tournament since 1996. Over 30 members of the basketball fraternity are known to have been killed during the Genocide.

One of the renowned victims is Emmanuel Ntarugera, a.k.a Gisembe.

But, who was Gisembe?

Emmanuel Ntarugera, better known as Gisembe, was a basketball player for five-time local league champions Espoir and the national team. He is among the club’s players who never survived the Genocide against the Tutsi two and a half decades ago.

According to Espoir officials, he was born in 1961 in Nyamirambo, a suburb in Kigali. Gisembe, who stood at 2 metres, left behind a widow and three children.

The Basketball Genocide Memorial Tournament (formerly Gisembe Memorial Tournament) was initiated in 1996 in honour of the departed star as well as his fallen teammates. Upon its inception, Espoir lifted the title for two consecutive times – 1996 and 1997 – and would not win it again until the 2004 edition.

Of the 30 known basketball fraternity members who were killed, eighteen were members of the Nyamirambo-based Espoir Basketball Club.

Last year, Rwanda Energy Group (REG) beat Patriots 73-67 to win the GMT title in men’s category, while APR lifted the trophy in women’s fray after edging IPRC-South 63-61 in the final.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com