President Paul Kagame, First Lady Jeannette Kagame, current and former heads of state/government and their spouses have laid the wreath at Kigali memorial centre, the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
The event kick starts the national commemoration week. Rwanda and the world observes the 30th commemoration to remember more than one million innocent Tutsi who were killed by a genocidal government using extremist hutu, interahamwe militia and the government defence and security personnel between April and early July 1994.
The wreath-laying ceremony included three important sections of senior officials of Rwanda and their guests and international organisations, then former heads of state and government, and the last section, the current heads of state and government.
Nicolas Sarkozy, former President of France, Bill Clinton, former US President and Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa were joined by former Prime Minister Heilemariam Dessalegn of Ethiopia and First Lady, among others.
In the current heads of state, President Paul Kagame and First Lady were joined by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia and First Lady and the President of Tczec Republic and First Lady, President Sassou Nguesso of Congo, Samiha Suluhu of Tanzania among others.
President Kagame, the First Lady and the guests proceeded to light the flame of remembrance also at Kigali Memorial Centre. It’s a flame of hope that keeps light for one hundred days, the time that lasted the Genocide tragedy.
