Western Province honours victims dumped in L.Kivu

KARONGI – Victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who were slaughtered and thrown into Lake Kivu were this week honoured at a commemoration ceremony held at Nyamunini Island in the Western Province.

Saturday, April 10, 2010
Provincial Governor Cu00e9lestin Kabahizi alongside other local leaders prepare to lay wreaths in water in memory of the Genocide victims. (Photo: S. Nkurunziza)

KARONGI – Victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who were slaughtered and thrown into Lake Kivu were this week honoured at a commemoration ceremony held at Nyamunini Island in the Western Province.

Led by provincial Governor, Celestin Kabahizi, the mourners observed a moment of silence and later put flowers in the lake to honour the over 6,000 victims estimated to have been dumped in the lake.

Mathias Abimana, one of the survivors who used Nyamunini island as an escape route to DRC, said that almost all the people who used this island to flee, escaped death.

"As we fled to the island, witnessing floating dead bodies was not a surprise,” Abimana, who is also the president of Karongi District Advisory Council, said.

He remembers that after most of them had left the island, Interahamwe militias stormed it and set it ablaze.

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