Nyarugenge District on Thursday, July 1, granted a decent burial to 83 remains of victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi at Nyanza Genocide Memorial located in Kicukiro District.

The remains were discovered in different sectors of the district during the last 100 days of the commemoration of the Genocide in which over a million people were killed.

According to officials, 75 of these bodies were found in the same mass grave that was discovered in the parking lot of the current Nyarugenge District Police Unit (DPU) offices located in Rwezamenyo Sector.

The remains were detected as a result of community reconciliation programme and subsequent testimonies of some of the Genocide convicts, according to Emmy Ngabonziza, the District Executive Administrator in Nyarugenge.  

Nyanza Genocide Memorial is currently the final resting place of more than 100,000 victims, many of them killed from different parts of Kigali.

Addressing mourners, Naphthali Ahishakiye, the Executive Secretary of IBUKA, the umbrella organization of Genocide survivors, urged the survivors to stay hopeful and strive for a better life ahead.  

Ngabonziza also shared a word of comfort with the survivors, promising them a safe and united nation under the prevailing good leadership.

"So, despite all this, we need have a peace of mind that army that stopped the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi is still there, protecting us; and we are optimistic that we will move forward as a united nation,” he said.

Venantie Kankindi whose family members were among those that were accorded a decent burial, expressed relief after burying her loved ones, 27 years later.

"Now, we feel relieved, it is depressing to know that your loved one is buried under a building or any other place you do not know. But we are now glad they are in a better place, where we know, and can come and honour them,” she said.