HUYE- The National University of Rwanda (NUR) won numerous trophies after beating national and sub-regional varsities and higher learning institutions in the recent Inter-University Arts Festival (FIAB) in Butare.

NUR outshone other universities in dance, music and drama, bagging three trophies in the five competition categories.

The Festival which brought together 12 universities from Rwanda and others from Burundi, DR Congo and Uganda, concluded last Sunday after three days of competition and artistic performances.

Ngozi University from Burundi emerged the best in drumming, while Goma-based, ULPGL, won in  the poetry category.

Kigali Institute of Education (KIE), INES Ruhengeri and Umutara Polytechnic University (UPU) won in the theatre, dance and poetry categories respectively, while Uganda Martyrs’ University (UMU) also took home an award in music and drumming.

The first and second best troupes in each category walked away with the cash prizes of Rwf 100, 000 and Rwf 70, 000 respectively.

Kigali Health Institute (KHI) was feted for thrilling the audience while Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) was recognised for discipline during the festival.

The French Embassy to Rwanda offered to reward the best French speaker in the competition with a trip to France. Vedanta Nkikabahizi, a student at the NUR, who emerged victorious to go for the trip, said courage and determination guided him during his performance.

Benjamin Bisangwa Ngami, the play director of ‘Stars du Theater’, which won the Best Drama award, told The New Times that the prize was a sign of recognition for their efforts and hard work over the past years.

"We worked so hard to reach to this day. Over the past years, we have devoted our efforts to theatre and now we are getting the results,” Ngami noted. The Inter-University Arts Festival of Butare was initiated by the National University of Rwanda, under its Centre for Arts and Drama in 2006.

This year’s edition was organized under the theme ‘Family planning and youth empowerment.”

Speaking at the closing ceremony, the NUR Rector, Prof Silas Lwakabamba, said that this year’s edition was due to support family planning policy and help spread its benefits to people across the country and the entire great lakes and East Africa Sub-region.

"With this festival, messages on family planning were not only spread to our neighbouring countries but through students of the NUR and other universities and we hope they will reach a wider audience”, Prof Lwakabamba observed.

Ends